APMC Act amended on farmers' demand: Shobha Karandlaje

Mysuru: Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje said that the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act was amended as per the demand of farmers.

Karandlaje was speaking to media on Thursday after hosting breakfast for mahouts and kavadis of Dasara elephants at Mysuru Palace premises. She said that farmers' unions were being provoked by certain sections into holding protests in the country. "Those who have been staging protests for the last eight months are not real farmers. Their protest is being politicised in the name of farmers," she alleged.

"The Centre has held several rounds of meetings with them and we have discussed more than 11 times with them. We are ready to talk to them again," Shobha Karandlaje said.

Commenting on a private conversation between former MP V S Ugrappa and KPCC media coordinator Saleem casting aspersions on State Congress president D K Shivakumar, Karandlaje said, "the percentage politics is the culture of their (Congress) party. The UPA government looted during 10 years of their rule and the same system continues in the state."

Cooperation and district in-charge Minister S T Somashekhar, DC Dr Bagadi Gautham, MUDA Chairman HV Rajeev, Jungle Lodges and Resorts Chairman Appanna, Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) Chairman L R Mahadevaswamy, D Devaraja Urs Backward Classes Corporation Chairman Kautilya Raghu, DCF (Wildlife) V Karikalan and others were present on the occasion.