Nedumangad: Ruling party trade union members were engaged in a war of words during the distribution of free rice in Kerala. Trucks carrying rice were stuck in the road for hours due to clashes.
Union workers then took the decision of taking down the load at the normal rate after the authorities rejected the idea of increasing the price even by a single rupee.
The centre of the clashes was when the rice was taken to Nedumangad NFSC warehouse. More than 2200 sacks of rice reached Nedumangad from Ernakulam on Thursday.
Union workers demanded Rs 800 per sack after 3 bags of rice, but this was not agreed upon by the authorities. As a result, the trucks remained on the road for 10 hours.
Rs 9.15 is generally estimated price for every bag of rice to the worker. And when the demands were not being met, they argued that offloading too many numbers of heavy sacks can pose danger to their health.
They said that there were more than 650 sacks of rice and offloading all can harm their health.
The authorities rejected heightening of prices in rice bags and told that not even a single rupee can be added from the normal rate due to the circumstances. The union workers came to an agreement and the bags of rice were offloaded by Thursday night.
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