Posters and hoarding mocking ‘turmeric board’ appear in Nizamabad

Posters and hoarding mocking ‘turmeric board’ appear in Nizamabad

The poster war between the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reached Nizamabad where posters mocking Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri on the promised Turmeric Board appearing across the city.

The yellow posters and hoardings with the Telugu text read ‘Turmeric Board’ and ‘Turmeric Board brought by our Hon’ble Nizamabad MP’ mocking him on his election promise of getting a turmeric board to Nizamabad if was elected. In fact, Mr. Arvind signed on a Judicial Bond paper that if he was unable to get the turmeric board within five days of winning he would resign.

Nizamabad is the country’s largest producer of turmeric and the setting up of a turmeric board has been a long-pending demand from farmers so that they would get access to better markets and better prices for their produce.

The posters and hoardings sprung up after the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said in Parliament on Wednesday that there was no proposal to establish a turmeric board or any other spice-specific board in the country.

Though the erection of posters and hoardings is being attributed to the turmeric farmers it was also clear that the BRS workers were behind the idea. Both Mr. Arvind and Ms. Kalvakuntal Kavitha, former MP from Nizamabad and the present BRS MLC, don’t see eye to eye on the issue.

In fact Ms. Kavitha has been questioning Mr. Arvind on his promise. She said Arvind had been unsuccessful in convincing the Union Government to set up the Turmeric Board and asked him justification for denying the farmers and people of Nizamabad their due.

Ms. Kavitha also said that the MP was making exaggerated claims about the allocation of ₹100 crore when every farmer only received ₹200 from the Turmeric Board. She said Mr. Arvind Dharmapuri and the BJP had made lofty promises to Nizamabad people to just win an election.