Nizamabad turns Haldighati: 1,000 farmers to enter Lok Sabha poll battlefield to save turmeric

HYDERABAD: Some 1,000 turmeric farmers have threatened to file nominations from Nizamabad constituency in Telangana as independent candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections if their demand for minimum support price (MSP) for their crop is not met.
India accounts for almost 80% of the world’s turmeric production and nearly 60% of global exports. In 2017-18, Telangana accounted for 13% of the country’s share of turmeric production with Nizamabad being the main hub.The constituency is represented by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha.
“We have been protesting for the last 20 days, but no one has paid heed. Our joint action committee (JAC) has decided that at least 1,000 people from 200 villages where turmeric is grown will contest the election,” said Ganga Reddy, a turmeric farmer and member of JAC.
No one from among the farmers is hoping to win the election. They say this is their way of expressing their anguish. The farmers have decided to collect the Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 election security deposit from village development committees so that the burden doesn’t fall on the candidates.
The farmers have been saying that they invest Rs 9,000 per quintal of turmeric, but get only around Rs 4,500 from traders. They have approached both the state and central government to procure the crop at Rs 10,000 per quintal.
EC: Farmers need at least ten people to certify nominations
Contesting polls to convey their grievances has been a tactic of farmers in the state since the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. A record number of 537 candidates, including 66 women, had filed nominations from Nalgonda then. Most of the independents were sponsored by the Jala Sadhana Samithi, which had launched an agitation for early implementation of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal project and drinking water supply scheme for the flourideaffected villages in the district.
At that time, 35 nominations were rejected while 22 withdrew from the contest. As many as 480 candidates, including 60 women, finally contested. Because of the huge number in the fray, the Election Commission (EC) had difficulty in allotting poll symbols to the candidates and the election was postponed by a month.
After this instance, the EC changed the rules for independent candidates and increased the security deposit 10-fold to ₹5,000 for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates and ₹10,000 for nominees from other castes and communities. The election was finally won by B Dharmabiksham of the CPI. In 2014 too, 27 turmeric farmers had filed nominations from Nizamabad and 10 had contested. “At the time we were promised MSP. But nothing happened,” said Saya Reddy, another farmer and JAC member.
EC official said farmers will have to get at least 10 people to certify their nominations. Police have imposed Section 144 in Nizamabad divison on Monday and Tuesday in view of protests by the farmers.