Mango growers dump produce on Bengaluru-Chennai highway to demand support price, block traffic

KOLAR: With falling prices, farmers dumped their mango produce near Kondarajanahalli on the Bengaluru-Chennai National Highway-75, blocked traffic and staged a protest on Tuesday demanding remunerative prices.

The farmers have been protesting since the last 22 days demanding better prices and seeking the intervention of the central and state governments. They have warned that they will lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Wednesday and call for a bandh in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts on Thursday if support price for mango is not announced by Tuesday evening.

The protesting farmers also raised slogans against the Congress government in the state and the Kolar MLA. They claimed that the Congress government had brought them to the streets by not offering any support. Due to the protest, traffic on the highway was affected for some time.

Mango growers’ association president Chinnappa Reddy said, “Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh has already banned sale of Totapuri mango from Srinivasapura. With no renumerative prices at the cold storage facilities, farmers are forced to let the produce rot in their orchards. This is for the first time that mango growers are facing such difficulties, but the government is only bothered about its guaranteee schemes. The government should provide at least Rs 15,000 per ton of mango, otherwise farmers will be drivern to suicide’.

Last month, mango growers in Srinivasapura had dumped mango produce on the roads and staged a protest. They had also called for a bandh in the town. Following this, district in-charge minister Byrathi Suresh had met a delegation and assured them of support price for the mango produce, but nothing has happened so far.