City civic body gets roses from farmers denied entry in market

Roses, usually considered a symbol love and affection, can also be used for protest!
This was shown by around rose growers when they dumped about 5,000 kg of the flowers outside the city civic body office today.
Nearly 500 farmers from about 20 villages under Karjan tehsil in the district threw the roses on the city's main Rajmahal road outside the Vadodara Municipal Corporation office here, while alleging that they have been banned from entering the civic-run vegetable market here to sell their produce.
Sanjay alias Appu Machhi, a leader of the protesting rose growers, told PTI that, "We took this step after we were asked not to enter the vegetable market premises for selling our produce (red roses) from today onwards."

He alleged that the farmers were being harassed for last two days by some local merchants in the vegetable market asking them to stop selling the roses.
"We have requested city Mayor Bharat Dangar and Municipal Commissioner Dr Vinod Rao to allot us a permanent spot in the market for doing our business without facing any kind of harassment," Machhi said.

He said that farmers in around 20 villages located on the bank river Narmada in the district grow roses and have been in this profession since many years.
A ban on selling the produce will make their livelihood difficult, he pointed out.

When contacted, VMC's market department superintendent Vijay Panchal denied issuance of any order banning rose growers from selling the flowers in the market.
He said there was a tussle between shop owners in the market and rose growers, as the former wanted the farmers not to sit outside their shops to sell the flowers.
Panchal assured that the farmers will be allowed to sell their flowers in the market.