Enraged onion growers stop auction, block road in Maharashtra’s Nasik
Nashik, Aug 24 : Agitated onion growers blocked roads and stopped the auction of the bulb in three APMC markets of Maharashtra’s Nasik on Thursday complaining of lower prices.
The farmers stopped the auction within minutes after it resumed on Thursday in Lasalgaon, Pimpalgaon and Chandwad, ending a four-day hiatus.
They demanded that the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) conduct the auction.
The farmers put up a road block near Chandwad Chauphuli, on Mumbai–Agra national highway, causing a traffic jam for two hours, demanding the central government withdraw the 40 percent export duty it has levied on onion.
The central government had earlier agreed to buy 2 lakh metric tonnes of onion and announced to pay a price of 2,410 rupees per quintal. On Tuesday, a review meeting was held at the Collector’s Office in Nashik under the chairmanship of Union Minister of State Dr. Bharti Pawar, where it was decided to resume the auction.
But the farmers alleged that the auction on Wednesday was fetching a price of Rs 1,000-Rs 2,100 per quintal.
Later in the day, NAFED officials discussed the issue with the agitators on the phone, following which the protest was called off. The farmers have warned that if NAFED does not start the purchase of onions by Monday at the rate decided earlier, there will be an intense protest.
