Turmeric farmers in Nizamabad, Telangana, dumped their produce in front of BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind's house on Saturday because the latter failed to enact a turmeric board. In March 2019, Arvind signed a non-judicial bond vowing to establish a turmeric board in five days if elected to parliament.
"In the last three years, Mr Arvind could only achieve an allocation of Rs 1.92 crore for close to 1 lakh turmeric-producing farmers," the protesting farmers stated. It comes to less than Rs 200 if we split it amongst ourselves. All he did was distribute bond paper to deceive farmers."
Kavitha Kalvakuntla, a member of the legislative council, exposed the BJP MP on Thursday, claiming that he deceived over 90,000 turmeric farmers spanning more than 1 lakh acres of land.
An RTI into the matter revealed that each farmer was only given Rs 200.
The farmers used the RTI to question the BJP MP why the farmers and people of Nizamabad were being denied basic dues. They further accused the MP of making extravagant promises such as giving Rs 100 crore for a turmeric board while each farmer only received Rs 200 during his tenure.
They further claimed that Kavitha Kalvakuntla was the one who brought the fight of the Nizamabad turmeric farmers to Delhi and pushed for the long-overdue turmeric board.
Arvind had told the agricultural community in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that if he was elected as the MP, he would get the turmeric board sanctioned for the district. He also stated that he will get suitable minimum support prices (MSP) for turmeric and red jowar.
Farmers claim that if Arvind fails to honour his commitment, he would quit as a member of Parliament and join the farmers' and people's movement in 2019.
