BJP Member of Parliament from Nizamabad Dharmapuri Arvind has felt that establishing a separate board to promote specific commercial crops is an old system and many of them which were established some 30 to 40 years ago did not yield results to the extent possible.
Boards like Spices Board, Coffee Board and Tea Board, among others, marketed the crops without having minimum awareness on their production and quality. They also failed to achieve results due to lack of coordination with different departments, he said in a press release issued in New Delhi.
Therefore, the Central government over sometime now has mulled over the functioning of the boards and launched new schemes like TIES and Clusters to promote those crops effectively and was providing funds and subsidies to them on a large scale. The schemes were designed in such a manner that all departments concerned were working for their implementation as they mandated other responsibilities besides the responsibilities of boards, he said.
“In a simple description a crop board is like an Ambassador car while the latest schemes are like Honda car. There will not be any surprise if boards disappear after some time,” he said.
It may be recalled here that Mr. Arvind who defeated then sitting Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha during his election campaign had promised the farmers of the Nizamabad Parliament constituency that he would ensure the formation of National Turmeric Board, a long cherished dream of farmers, within a few days of his election and NDA-II Government at Centre.
Mr. Arvind, meanwhile, said that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal responded positively and were learnt to have issued orders over his complaint yesterday that about 30,000 tonnes of turmeric was being imported despite the crop being grown abundantly in India.
