Warangal: Traders oppose shifting of Spice Board office

Warangal: With the news spreading that the regional office of Spices Board, Warangal, is to be relocated to Nizamabad, the local trade circles raised a hue and cry stating that any such move could hurt the interests of the farmers in the region.

Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, the Warangal Chamber of Commerce and Industry president and general secretary Diddi Kumara Swamy and Thota Narsimha Rao said that the move to shift the regional office of Spice Board to Nizamabad is totally uncalled-for.

"Telangana alone produces nearly 58 per cent of the total chilli in the country. Against this backdrop, the regional office of Spices Board was shifted to Warangal from Hyderabad in 2009 to help the local farmers who cultivate a major part of chilli in the State," the duo said.

The regional office is of immense help to chilli farmers in getting subsidies and marketing links, they said. The duo said that news of shifting regional office has also created flutter sometime ago, however, the then Union Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar assured us not to shift the office.

"Already, the local farmers have been facing problems as they don't have a laboratory in the region. It has become time consuming task for the farmers to get lab reports of chilli and turmeric samples from the Spice Board in Guntur. It's high time that the government set up a lab in Warangal to help the farmers," the duo said. The duo said that they would meet and urge Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal not to shift the regional office from Warangal.

Chamber of Commerce members Sadula Damodar, Sriram Ravi, Kotha Kishore Kumar and Telangana Cotton Association President B Ravinder Reddy were among others present.