Farmers protest over new bag weight limit

Bowenpally: Vegetable farmers who sell their produce at Bowenpally agriculture market staged protest demanding the market committee's decision to restrict maximum weight of bags to 65 kg. Farmers were bringing their produce in 85 kg bags, but the committee restricted the bag limit to 65 kg on hamali workers' insistence.

Farmer representatives, speaking to media, lamented that reducing the bag limit to 65 kg would result in losses to them. Expressing their anger over the decision, farmers alleged that, despite several representations to Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, market authorities remained indifferent to their issues.

Vexed by the official negligence, farmers staged protest at the market yard on Wednesday. Tension prevailed even as large number from Vikarabad, Rangareddy and Hyderabad districts rushed towards market committee building. Police, deployed at the market, arrested the protesting farmers and shifted them to Bollaram police station.