News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vishal Sharma / New Delhi/ Agra August 26, 2008 Besides increasing hopes for a better performance in the forthcoming Commonwealth games, the Olympic medals by the Indian sportsmen is also to have a positive effect on the teetering sporting goods industry of Agra. While future sportsmen can be seen lined up for their turn at the racing tracks and swimming pool in the town’s only stadium, the newly constructed municipal shooting range is also witnessing a higher turnout of amateur shooters despite being located in the town’s outskirts. Once famous in north India as a major hub for cricket bat manufacturing, the sporting goods industry of Agra is now reduced to barely a handful of bat manufacturing units due to the shortage of raw material like willow and cane, used in the manufacture of bats. Other units manufacturing stuff like weight lifting equipment and hockey sticks are also on the verge of downing their shutters due to lack of business. The only segments where the Agra sporting goo

Vishal Sharma / New Delhi/ Agra August 26, 2008 The potato farmers of Agra are angry with cold storage owners, who, they say, are harassing them by increasing storage rates by up to Rs 30 a quintal. Farmers of villages around Agra held a meeting to discuss the situation. According to the Aloo Utpadak Kisan Samiti General Secretary Pushpendra Jain, the farmers are losing between Rs 17,000 and Rs 19,000 per hectare even after having selling their entire produce. Even the state government had accepted the loss figures of Rs 16,710 per hectare, which was an unbearable loss to small and big farmers alike. The potato arriving in the market from states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh will cause a steeper drop in potato prices throughout the state and without the government aid, it will be impossible for the farmers to come out of the debt. To further aggravate the situation, he said, the cold storage owners have decided to raise their storage fees from Rs 80 per quintal to Rs 120 per quinta