Farmers Dump Turmeric Produce At Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri's Residence

Turmeric farmers on Sunday dumped produce in front of his residence in Nizamabad's Armoor

New Delhi: Weeks after agitated farmers dumped a pile of paddy at Nizamabad MP and BJP leader Arvind Dharmapuri's residence, turmeric farmers on Sunday dumped produce in front of his residence in Nizamabad's Armoor as a mark of protest over his failure to fulfill the promise of turmeric board.

TRS MLC and former Nizamabad MP K Kavitha earlier slammed the BJP MP for failing to keep the promise about bringing the turmeric board to the district.

Arvind had promised the farming community in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that if elected as MP, he would get the turmeric board sanctioned to the district and that he would get proper minimum support prices fixed for both turmeric and red jowar.

He had even signed a non-judicial (bond) stamp paper stating that if elected to the Parliament, he would get a turmeric board in five days. Farmers alleged that even after three years, the Nizamabad MP failed to fulfill his promise. They said in the last three years, the BJP MP could only get an allocation of Rs 1.92 crore for close to one lakh turmeric-producing farmers. If divided among all farmers, it boils down to less than Rs 200.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and former MP from Nizamabad, K Kavitha had last week claimed that a reply under RTI exposed Arvind's false claims on Turmeric Board.

Kavitha, who is a member of Telangana Legislative Council and daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, alleged that over 90,000 turmeric farmers spread over one lakh acres of land were cheated by the BJP. The RTI revealed that mere Rs 190 were allocated per farmer in 2020-2021, Rs 124 in 2021 and nothing in 2022-2023.

BJP MP Arvind's Response 

Responding to allegations by the ruling government in the state, Arvind Dharmapuri said, "Kavitha is resorting to goondaism. She is hiring goondas from outside the parliament segment to stop me from going around my constituency. She miserably in performing when she was the MP."

Arvind also said that the BJP has done much better in the last three years than what TRS has done to the farmers in the five years. "She couldn't get Rs 10 lakh for the turmeric farmers in the five years. But, we (BJP) have brought Rs 6 crore for the benefit of farmers in the last 3 years. During her regime, the turmeric prize was around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000. Today, turmeric farmers are selling their produce for Rs 10,000 per quintal."

(With IANS inputs)