Farmers block road for potato preservation in Rangpur
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Several hundred farmers put up a barricade on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway in front of Shah Sultan cold-storage at Chuhur in Mithapukur under Rangpur Friday, demanding preservation of their potatoes in the storehouse, reports UNB.
Sources said the farmers got angry in the morning when the cold-storage officials denied accepting their potatoes for preservation.
At one stage, the farmers started staging demonstration and put barricade on the highway at about 7:30am, halting traffic for nearly three hours.
On information, police and RAB members rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
The farmers alleged that they had been waiting with the potatoes in front of the storehouse for preservation since Wednesday night.
Cold-storage manager Mostafizur Rahman said they have already preserved 1,90,000 sacks of potato in the storehouse against its capacity of 2,10,000 sacks.
"So, we stopped storing potatoes Friday, as the cold storage has no capacity of preserving all the potatoes kept outside it," he added.
Sources said the farmers got angry in the morning when the cold-storage officials denied accepting their potatoes for preservation.
At one stage, the farmers started staging demonstration and put barricade on the highway at about 7:30am, halting traffic for nearly three hours.
On information, police and RAB members rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
The farmers alleged that they had been waiting with the potatoes in front of the storehouse for preservation since Wednesday night.
Cold-storage manager Mostafizur Rahman said they have already preserved 1,90,000 sacks of potato in the storehouse against its capacity of 2,10,000 sacks.
"So, we stopped storing potatoes Friday, as the cold storage has no capacity of preserving all the potatoes kept outside it," he added.