HYDERABAD: Alleging the BJP was adopting dual stand on setting up Turmeric Board, farmers who cultivate turmeric in Nizamabad district have burnt the BJP manifesto released for Tamil Nadu elections in Armoor on Thursday.
On March 15, the Centre in the parliament said that there was no proposal to set up a Turmeric Board in Telangana.
Replying to a question raised by TRS MP KR Suresh Reddy in the Rajya Sabha, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry had already established a Regional Office-cum-Extension Centre of Spices Board at Nizamabad for export promotion of spices including turmeric.
Turmeric is one of the important spice crops in the country with a total production of 11.53 lakh tonnes, which accounts for 78 percent of total turmeric production in the world. Telangana is the largest producer of turmeric with 3.86 lakh tonnes and has a cultivation area of 1.37 lakh acres.
The erstwhile Nizamabad district is one of the biggest centres of turmeric trade in Telangana. In the run-up to the 2019 general election, BJP candidate Dharmapuri Arvind gave a written promise on a bond paper that he would convince the Centre to set up the Turmeric Board in Nizamabad if he was elected as MP and won the seat. However, the promise remains unfulfilled and protests by turmeric farmers are being carried since then.
Today the farmers demanded the MP’s resignation and questioned the dual stand of BJP On Turmeric Board.