BJP rejects turmeric board, gives weapon to TRS!

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which lost its Lok Sabha seat in Nizamabad to Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 general elections on the issue of setting up of turmeric board, has now got a new weapon now.

The BJP government at the Centre has rejected outright the demand for setting up of a turmeric board in Nizamabad.

“There is no proposal to set up any such board for turmeric as there is already a spices board for the same,” Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.

It is definitely an embarrassing situation for BJP MP from Nizamabad Dharmapuri Arvind, who promised to bring the turmeric board within a week of winning the Lok Sabha elections. Readmore!

The turmeric farmers, who were angry with then sitting MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, defeated her with huge margin.

Now that the Centre backtracked on its promise, the TRS has sharpened its weapon to attack the saffron party. TRS legislator from Armoor P Jeevan Reddy said what would Arvind do now since the centre had ruled out the turmeric board.

“During the elections, Arvind said he would resign from the MP seat if he did not get the turmeric board. Now, he should resign from his post and get ready for agitation against the centre on behalf of farmers,” Reddy said.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, too, raised the issue in Lok Sabha on Tuesday and fired on BJP government for not fulfilling the assurance of setting up a separate turmeric board in Nizamabad district.

He said farmers had been agitating for many years for a separate Turmeric Board. He reminded that Unoin ministers Rajnath Singh and Prakash Javedkar, beside BJP leader Ram Madhav, too, gave specific assurance while campaigning for BJP candidates in last Lok Sabha elections that a Turmeric Board would be set up. 

"What is the problem in setting up a Turmeric Board? There is no great financial cost. Land has already been allotted by the previous government," he said adding that the turmeric farmers were neither getting Minimum Support Price nor any market intervention.