Hyderabad, May 4 Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K. Kavitha on Wednesday slammed BJP MP from Nizamabad, Arvind Dharmapuri for failing to bring the Turmeric Board to the district even three years after he made the promise to the famers.
Kavitha, who is a member of Telangana Legislative Council and a former MP from Nizamabad, alleged that he has failed to persuade the Centre to establish the Turmeric Board in Nizamabad.
Addressing a news conference in Nizamabad, Kavitha cited the replies received under Right to Information Act (RTI) to question Dharmapuri of the reason for depriving the farmers and people of Nizamabad of their basic dues.
Kavitha, who is daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said the MP made tall claims of Rs 100 crore allocation, while every farmer made only Rs 200.
She said Dharmapuri and the BJP made tall promises to the people of Nizamabad in order to just win an election.
"Mr Arvind, in the last three years, could only get our farmers an allocation of Rs 1.92 crore for close to 1 lakh turmeric producing farmers. If you divide it between all of them, it boils down to less than Rs 200. All he did was deceive farmers by distributing a bond paper," she said.
Kavitha stated that she didn't speak on the subject for the last three years because she wanted to respect the mandate delivered by the people of Nizamabad and give the current MP the time to do something regarding his promises to the farmers of the district. She also cited an RTI reply on the budget allocated with respect to turmeric-producing farmers.
Dharmapuri 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.
"If he failed to keep both commitments, he had said that he would resign as a member of Parliament and join the farmers' and people's movement," Kavitha said.
In March 2019, Dharmapuri made a vow for the Turmeric Board in writing and even signed it on a non-judicial (bond) stamp paper. In the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, his team printed copies of the promise and distributed them in turmeric-growing areas.
A regional centre of the Spices Board was set up by the Union government on February 14, 2020, but this did not satisfy the farming community, who had stated that nothing less than a full-fledged board is acceptable to them and the rallying cry for it continued.
Kavitha said that the office of the regional spice board office has nothing but a "few Nilkamal (brand of plastic) chairs" and two people managing it. According to the RTI reply, the office conducted eight meetings in the period of 2020-21 via video conference.
"Time has come now for Mr. Arvind to deliver on his bond paper promise. He should go around on his knees in Delhi around the offices of his masters if he really has the interest to serve the people of Telangana," Kavitha remarked.
Kavitha also hit Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. "During paddy crop issue, we urged him (Rahul Gandhi) to raise the issue in Parliament and to support farmers of Telangana but he didn't. But now he is planning something in Warangal, coming here to do politics only. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi never talked in the favour of Telangana. Don't know why he is coming to Warangal and Osmania University now," she said.
Referring to visits of Parliament Rahul Gandhi and BJP President J.P. Nadda to Telangana, she dubbed them "political tourists".
The former MP said that in the run up to elections "more and more political tourists" will visit Telangana because of elections but the TRS is here to stay to work for the future generations. She further added that other political parties try to divide people of Telangana in the name of religion, occupation and other ways, her party works to bridge that gap.
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