TDP strikes paddy deal when Ayodhya is hot

Teaming up with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, the TDP MPs sat on a dharna for nearly two hours in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament for the second day today. Vajpayee despatched Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shanta Kumar and his Parliamentary Affairs colleague Pramod Mahajan to persuade the MPs to call of their protest.

Kumar was forced to announce that the Centre would concede the TDP’s demands then and there. Later, TDP parliamentary wing chief K Yerran Naidu — with Banerjee in tow — left for a meeting with Vajpayee along with Kumar and Mahajan. At this meeting, Vajpayee directed Kumar that his ministry do the needful.

Accordingly, the Centre through the Food Corporation of India along with State agencies will procure 10 lakh tonnes of paddy in Andhra Pradesh. Cash credit will also be made available to the State for the purpose. Another sop to the State is the relaxation in the admixture specifications for Swarna masoori rice from 10 per cent to 13 per cent. Also conceded were the demands for lifting of five lakh tonnes of rice every month from the State and permission to export rice to other States and out of the country.

The TDP’s demands had been hanging fire for over a month now but the Centre chose to concede them only at an opportune moment when the party along with the Trinamool Congress is threatening to embarrass the government further over Vajpayee’s controversial statements.

The Trinamool Congress which faces crucial Assembly elections early next yearin West Bengal is also looking for some sops in the form of monetary assistance for flood relief operations in the State. Staging a sit-in yesterday in Parliament, it demanded that the Centre release funds to take care of the 2.5 crore people affected due to the floods.

At the dharna site, TDP MPs also took Shanta Kumar to task for his “irresponsible” statement that the “situation in Andhra Pradesh is not alarming.” Asked if Chandrababu Naidu would meet Kumar in Delhi, they shot back: “Why should he come here? We are not at the Centre’s mercy.” There was talk that Kumar would be going to Hyderabad tomorrow or on Monday to meet Naidu.