The Warangal Chamber of Commerce and Industry office-bearers and the local traders have opposed the reported decision to shift Spices Board regional office located in Warangal to Nizamabad.
The traders and businessmen in Warangal are feeling that shifting the regional office to Nizamabad would harm the interests of the farming community in the region. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Diddi Kumara Swamy and General Secretary Thota Narsimha Rao said shifting the regional office to Nizamabad was inappropriate.
They noted that the news of shifting Spices Board regional office has caused quite a disquiet in the past adding, “The then Union Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar assured that the office would not be shifted”. Telangana State produces nearly 58 % of the total chilli in the country. In view of this the Spices Board Regional Office was shifted to Warangal from Hyderabad in the year 2009 to help the local chilli farmers, they pointed out.
The Regional Office helps chilli farmers in getting subsidies and marketing links. Hence the proposal to shift the office has to be withdrawn, they said, adding that they would call on Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal to urge him not to shift office from Warangal.
Further, Kumara Swamy and Narsimha Rao pointed out that the local farmers have been facing problems due to lack of a laboratory in the region. The farmers had to get lab reports of chilli and turmeric samples from the Spice Board in Guntur.
“The government has to set up a lab in Warangal to help the farmers,” they demanded. Chamber of Commerce members Sadula Damodar, Sriram Ravi, Kotha Kishore Kumar and Telangana Cotton Association President B Ravinder Reddy were among others present.
Meanwhile, president of the Abhyudaya Seva Samithi Mandala Parashuramulu in a letter to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry appealed to drop the idea of shifting the office as it would cause huge loss to chilli farmers in Warangal.
