BRS, Left parties demand a support price of Rs 25,000 per quintal chilli in Telangana’s Khammam

The leaders of the parties and farmers staged a massive dharna in front of the collectorate

Khammam: BRS, Telangana Rythu Sanghams of CPI and CPI (M) have demanded the State and Central governments to ensure a support price of Rs 25,000 per quintal of chilli.

The leaders of the parties and farmers staged a massive dharna in front of the collectorate on Monday. The Rythu Sangham leaders Bonthu Rambabu, Kondaparthi Govinda Rao, Pothineni Sudarshan, B Hemantha Rao and BRS MLC Tata Madhusudhan speaking on the occasion said that Telangana was the top state in the country with the highest area of chilli cultivation.

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But farmers who have achieved quality chilli yields were suffering serious losses due to lack of prices in the market. The Central and State governments should purchase chilli at profitable prices and a Chilli Board should be set up in Khammam, they said.

Setting up a dedicated Chilli Board could help in fixing of profitable price, proper market support and allocation funds. As the chilli prices have been falling the government should ensure that the produce was purchased through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) and Telangana Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited (TG MARKFED), the leaders demanded.

They wanted the Central government, which has so far earned foreign exchange through chilli exports, to help the struggling chilli farmers. The governments that were collecting 18 percent GST on pesticides and five percent GST on fertilisers were not solving the problems of farmers, they complained.

If the governments failed to address the farmers’ issues an intensive farmers’ movement beyond politics would be launched, they warned. Former MLAs Kondabala Koteswara Rao, Banothu Chandravathi, former Zilla Parishad chairman Lingala Kamal Raju and others were present.