TRS' Kalvakuntla Kavitha alleged that BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri has cheated turmeric farmers.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha has alleged that BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri has cheated turmeric farmers of the district after promising them a Turmeric Board. K Kavitha also accused Arvind Dharmapuri of reneging on his assurance of Rs 100 crore for these farmers.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Ms Kavitha said while campaigning for the 2019 national election, the BJP MP had promised the farming community in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency that if elected, he would get a Turmeric Board sanctioned for the district and that he would get proper minimum support prices fixed for both turmeric and red jowar.
In March 2019, the BJP leader had even pledged to do so in writing, signing on a non-judicial (bond) stamp paper as guarantee. His team reportedly distributed copies of the guarantee among farmers in Nizamabad.
"He had said if he ever failed to keep the promises, he would resign as am MP and join the farmers' and people's movement," said the lawmaker of Telangana's ruling party.
Ms Kavitha, who is the daughter of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, told reporters she had filed an RTI (Right to Information) to find out if the farmers of Nizamabad, especially those growing turmeric and red gram, had got what was promised to them.
A former MP from Nizamabad and the first woman parliamentarian from Telangana, Ms Kavitha had in 2014 taken the fight of turmeric farmers for a board to Delhi.
She alleged that Arvind Dharmapuri had made false promises to the people of Nizamabad just so he could win the election.
Ms Kavitha, who was defeated by the BJP MP in 2019, said she hadn't spoken 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 "time" to make good on his promises.
Quoting from an RTI reply on the budget allocated to turmeric-producing farmers, the TRS leader said in the last three years, nearly one lakh farmers got an allocation of only Rs 1.92 crore.
"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.
For 2020-21, Rs 1,18,71,000 was allocated, of which Rs 75 lakh was assistance towards boilers and Rs 43.71 lakh was for turmeric polishers, according to the RTI.
For 2021-22, the allocation went down further to Rs 74.81 lakh, of which Rs 39.73 lakh went to assistance for boilers, Rs 6.58 lakh for turmeric polishers and Rs 15 lakh as assistance towards Silpaulin sheets. Rs 10 lakh was assigned for the Spices Producers group and Rs 3.50 lakh for setting up basic quality testing equipment.
A regional centre of the Spices Board was set up by the Centre on February 14, 2020, but this did not satisfy the farming community, who insisted that nothing less than a full-fledged board is acceptable to them.
Ms Kavitha said that the office of the regional spice board had not been able to achieve anything.
The TRS leader also mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his upcoming two-day visit to Telangana to meet with farmers.
"During the 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," Ms Kavitha said.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad, will visit Telangana on Friday and Saturday. He is scheduled to address farmers and also meet with Telangana martyrs.
Ms Kavitha also criticised BJP chief JP Nadda's visit tomorrow.
"In the run-up to elections more and more political tourists will visit Telangana because of elections but the TRS Party is here to stay to work for the future generations," she said.