Madhya Pradesh Govt Reduces Mandi Cess, Asks Farmers To Call Off the Strike

• Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday reduced the 'mandi cess' from 1.7 % to 0.5 %.
• He convinced traders to call off their 12-day strike that had paralyzed mandis across the state.
• Gopal Das Aggarwal, president of the state wholesale traders association, said, "The contribution of agriculture procurement mandis towards the welfare of farmers was being overlooked."
• He asked, "It's ok to allow farmers to sell their produce wherever they want to but who will come to the mandis if selling there meant paying a cess to the government?"
• Let us tell you, over 90,000 traders across 272 mandis in the state had stopped agricultural produce procurement for the past 12 days as part of their protest against the farm reform laws passed by Parliament.