Sendhwa (Madhya Pradesh): Hundreds of maize cultivators from Sendhwa and its adjoining areas on Tuesday staged a protest at the Krishi Upaj Mandi accusing traders of not buying their harvest. The protest that continued for an hour came to an end only after the mandi officials assured them that purchases at the mandi would be resumed.
According to information, there has been a bumper arrival of maize crop for the last four to five days. On Tuesday, when many of the farmers arrived at the mandi with their harvest, traders refused to purchase their harvest citing the closure of the portal, IDs being blocked and a decrease in the mandi rates. The farmers created a ruckus for about 2 hours and sat on a dharna in front of the gate.
They claimed that even though the price of maize stands between Rs 2,000 and 2,200, yet the price of their produce was being quoted at Rs 1,700 to 1,800.
After persuasion by mandi the officials the traders agreed to resume purchase and business started at 1.30 pm.
Root cause of problem
Three days ago, there a complaint was made to the district collector Shivraj Singh Verma regarding the storage of maize in the ginning premises, on which the Barwani collector ordered an investigation into the matter.
A 12-member team of Mandi and the Agriculture Department from Barwani along with the revenue staff of Sendhwa conducted necessary investigations regarding the food grains stored in large quantities in various ginning complexes.
The investigation team made panchnama after getting information about thousands of quintals of maize stored in Suraj Jining Complex on Varla Road. On the other hand, the investigation team obtained information about the grains stored grains at Gupteshwar Corporation in front of Suraj Jining.
Similarly, an investigation was also done at Anil Pawan's warehouse on Varla Road and other ginning premises. This tax evasion investigation is still going on, due to which on the orders of the collector, the IDs of the traders were closed.
During the investigation, it was revealed that some of the traders are involved in tax evasion by purchasing harvest directly from the farmers.
After which traders were banned from buying maize directly. Their IDs were blocked and the portal was closed. Following the action, on Tuesday traders refused to buy from the farmers.
Sale, purchase of harvest suspended till further orders
Due to the ongoing investigation proceedings and the problem in the payment of the produce sold by traders, the mandi secretary Laxman Singh Thakur has ordered the suspension of the purchase and sale of agricultural produce in the market from Wednesday till further orders.
Thakur has expressed the hope that the matter will be resolved in two days and the situation will become normal.
Thakur added that the confusion between traders and farmers has been resolved and the auction has been started.
Mandi secretary shifted
Mandi secretary Laxman Singh Thakur face departmental action in the incident and was temporarily removed and attached to Indore office till further orders. Whereas Mansharam Jamre, mandi secretary of Khetia, has been given additional charge of Sendhwa. There is information about the issuance of such orders from Mandi Board, Bhopal.
