Govt intervenes to stop farmer protest in Yeshwantpur

The state government intervened in time to stop one more farmers' agitation in Bengaluru over the proposed closure of the APMC yard in Yeshwantpur.

Stakeholders of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) planned to stage a protest on Monday at Ganesha temple premises in the APMC yard against the e-commerce start-up UDAAN and other B2B online companies entering the APMC.

But they called off the protest after the APMC minister assured them that the government would address their demands.

The stakeholders of APMC have asked the minister to cancel the licences of B2B online companies as they are contributing zero revenue to the government. "The permission for UDAAN to operate with APMC was given three months ago. We want those licences to be cancelled as they do not contribute to the government’s revenue," said Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, one of the stakeholders.

Minister for co-operation and agricultural marketing Bandeppa Kashempur called an emergency meeting, where he vowed to meet the demands of the stakeholders, which persuaded them to give up the protest plan.