Hyderabad, Apr 9 (PTI) Intensifying its protests against the NDA government on the paddy procurement issue, the ruling TRS in Telangana would hold a 'Maha Dharna' in Delhi on April 11 demanding that the Centre purchase paddy produced in the rabi season.

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The 'Maha Dharna' would be attended by state ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives, TRS tweeted on Saturday.

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The TRS has put up hoardings in the national capital demanding that there should be one paddy procurement policy in the country, party sources said.

Alleging that the BJP-led NDA government discriminated against Telangana, TRS has taken up a series of protests, including road blockades, for nearly a week.

The protests by TRS came amid a row and a war of words between the TRS and BJP over paddy procurement in the state.

While the TRS government has been demanding that the Centre procure paddy, the Centre has said it would buy raw rice.

The Telangana government had given in writing that it will not supply parboiled rice but raw rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal had said recently.

Alleging that TRS is enacting a drama by holding protests in the name of paddy procurement to divert public attention from its recent hike in electricity charges, BJP MLA Raja Singh has recently said the state government should take steps to procure paddy from farmers to supply raw rice to the Centre as per the agreement.

Meanwhile, state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Saturday alleged that the TRS government's "politicking on paddy procurement" smacks of a large-scale conspiracy to help middlemen make hundreds of crores and diverting the anger of farmers towards the Centre.

In an open letter to the farming community in the state, Sanjay Kumar alleged that by closing down paddy procurement centres during rabi season, the Telangana government was creating an inevitable situation for the farmers to sell their produce to middlemen at a much lower rate than the minimum support price (MSP).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)