Sanawad (Madhya Pradesh): Barwah ñ Sanawad MLA Sachin Birla called a meeting of farmers, traders and market association on Wednesday to address the issues prevailing in the new Krishi Upaj Mandi at Bedia, situated about 17 kilometres from Sanawad.
In the meeting, MLA Birla gave a patient hearing to the grievances of the farmers, traders and the market association members. In the meeting, it was decided that instead of three days, chillies will be purchased for four days at the mandi. As per the new schedule, now chillies will be purchased from farmers in mandi on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 7 am onwards. It has also been decided that the height of the chillies weighing bridge would be made one feet to avoid any error in the weighing procedure.
Only licensed Tulavati will be able to weigh chillies in the mandi. A weight of 20 kilograms should compulsorily be placed on each weighing bridge. Any information related to the market will be announced by the Mandi Administration. Merchants will not make any announcements. About five hundred retail chilli traders of Bedia area will be given licenses to do business on receipt of fixed deposit of Rs 25000.
In the meeting, farmers and traders demanded the MLA to release Rs 5 crore for the development and expansion of the new chilli mandi. Agriculture minister Kamal Patel had announced the grant for the development of the mandi. The amount should be provided soon so that basic facilities like levelling of land, roads, electricity, drinking water can be made available in the new market.
Farmers and traders told the MLA that about 60 acres of land is required for smooth trading and business in the mandi. But at present only 21 acres of land has been acquired. Out of this, development work has been done on only 11 acres of land, while there is encroachment on the remaining 10 acres of land. Therefore, the traders have to operate the market by taking the land of the farmers on rent near the mandi.
In the absence of land and development, the new Mirchi Mandi built at a cost of crores is lying idle and farmers and traders are facing difficulties. Traders said that the bypass has been constructed from Purani Mandi to Khargone Road. On this bypass, arrangements should be made to keep the goods carriers away from the bypass on four working days of the mandi so that the traffic in the inner parts of Bedia is not obstructed.
