Hyderabad:In response to BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s criticism of the current Rabi paddy procurement efforts, Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy launched a pointed counterattack on Friday, accusing the BRS leader of deceiving farmers with false information to conceal the party’s own procurement shortcomings.

The Minister alleged that BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s sole agenda is to create a politically manufactured chaos among the farmers. But it will “backfire”, he asserted.

Uttam Kumar Reddy, in a statement issued here, said the Congress government was executing the largest paddy procurement operation in Telangana’s history despite severe manpower shortages, massive logistical challenges and an unprecedented scale of arrivals. While the BRS is busy spreading confusion, the Congress government is ensuring that every grain brought by farmers is procured and every rupee reaches farmers accounts,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy completely rejected KTR’s allegations and said official figures had exposed the hollowness of the BRS campaign. He said that by May 21, Telangana had already recorded 54.29 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy arrivals, out of which 46.21 LMT had been procured, accounting for nearly 85 per cent procurement completion.

He said procurement transactions of more than 6.32 lakh farmers had already been completed and payments worth Rs 7,841 crore had been directly credited into farmers’ bank accounts.

“This is a record-breaking Rabi procurement operation happening on a war footing across Telangana,” he declared.

Taking dig at the BRS regime, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress government had already outperformed multiple Rabi procurement seasons handled by the previous government.

He pointed out that during the BRS regime, procurement stood at only 26.78 LMT in Rabi 2021-22 and 36.63 LMT in Rabi 2022-23, whereas the Congress government had already crossed 48.21 LMT procurement this season with procurement operations still continuing.

He also highlighted the “historic benchmark” achieved during the previous Rabi season under Congress rule in 2024-25, ( As on May 22, 2025 )when Telangana recorded an all-time high procurement of 60.44 LMT, with MSP payments touching Rs 10,882 crore.

“Those who failed farmers for years are now unable to digest the scale and transparency of the Congress government’s farmer-first procurement model,” the Minister said.

Responding strongly to allegations of gunny bag shortages, Uttam Kumar Reddy termed the accusations “completely fabricated and irresponsible.”

He said the government had already positioned nearly 20 crore gunny bags across procurement centres and adequate stocks were available to handle the entire procurement process smoothly.

He said the government was conducting daily reviews, deploying more than 13,000 trucks and lorries every day, and continuously monitoring logistics, lifting and transportation. More than 43 LMT of paddy had already been shifted to rice mills, while additional stocks were being transported to storage facilities without interruption.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also slammed attempts by the opposition to politically exploit farmer deaths by linking them to procurement delays.

“Using farmers’ for political drama is shameful and insensitive. The BRS leadership is resorting to desperation politics because it has lost public trust,” he said. The Minister said the Congress government had ensured “a fair deal, better support and faster payments” for farmers while the BRS leadership was only interested in “manufacturing headlines through false propaganda.”

“We believed in and built a farmer-first ecosystem. Facts tell the real story. The Congress government is way ahead in MSP operations, procurement efficiency and farmer payments,” Uttam Kumar Reddy asserted.