NEW DELHI, DEC 8: The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken strong objection to Shanta Kumar's comments on the paddy issue to the effect that the states were pressuring the Centre on paddy and sought Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's intervention to rein in the Food Ministry and help farmers in the State.Dubbing the Union Minister's statement as ``irresponsible'', the state Civil Supplies Minister N Janardhan Reddy accused the Centre of adopting a ``discriminatory approach'' by denying relaxation of procurement norms for AP farmers on lines of their counterparts in Punjab.``He (Shanta Kumar) should come here and see for himself the plight of farmers who had to resort to distress sale because of non-cooperation by the FCI,'' Reddy told reporters.Janardhan Reddy asserted that the State was only demanding enhancement of paddy and rice procurement by FCI to ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers.Seeking Prime Minister's intervention to save farmers,passing through crisis in the face of burgeoning stocks, he alleged that FCI officials were displaying ``utter callousness'' despite repeated requests by the state government to step up procurement.Meanwhile, Shanta Kumar also faced the ire of the TDP MPs, despite having partially conceded their demands to relax specifications for procurement of paddy as granted to Punjab and Haryana.It all began on Thursday morning with all Andhra Pradesh MPs staging a dharna inside Parliament House complex, demanding a package from Shanta Kumar on pattern of what he offered to Punjab and UP by purchasing their ``sub-standard paddy''.They agreed to talk to Shanta Kumar only on request of Rural Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. But Kumar called off the negotiations saying he would have to talk to the Prime Minister.The TDP MPs, however, got agitated only in the evening when Shanta Kumar charged them of adopting coercive tactics. ``There was no reason why the MPs should resort to a dharna as the State Chief Minister had already sorted out most of the problems being faced by the State on rice procurement,'' Kumar told reporters in the evening.``The Minister's statement reflects his insensitiveness towards problems faced by farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Questioning our right to stage a dharna was most unbecoming on his part,'' TDP Rajya Sabha member C Ramchandraiah, told The Indian Express.The Minister, however, maintained that there was no alarming situation in AP as the FCI had already procured 10 lakh tonnes of rice till today while it was only six lakh tonnes during the corresponding period, last year. He also refused to go in for direct paddy procurement on the pattern of Punjab and Haryana.Kumar said that the Centre had been procuring rice from AP through cent per cent levy route so far and wanted to continue the same practice. In fact, the Centre was committed to switch onto the levy rice procurement in Punjab and Haryana too though the FCI had directly purchased 30 per cent of the total arrival of paddy crop in both states during this season, he said.Andhra Pradesh is expected to produce 40 lakh tonnes of rice this year which was slightly more that the previous year.
