Traders firm on strike, ignore Bhuse’s appeal

LOKMAT NEWS NETWORK

Nashik, Sep 21

The Marketing Minister will hold a meeting on Tuesday, September 26 to discuss the demands of onion traders. Therefore, Guardian Minister and Minister of Public Works (Public Enterprises) Dada Bhuse appealed that the auction should now be started. However, the traders are firm on their stand and say that a decision will be taken by holding a representative meeting of the traders in all the market committees. Onion traders have stopped onion auctions in market committees in Nashik for the last three days. Therefore, farmers and consumers are likely to be hit badly. Onion procured through NAFED and ACCF is sold in the domestic market, so there is no response to onion procured by traders. Similarly, since the onion export duty has been increased by 40 percent, there is an undeclared export ban. Notably, the onion auctions have been halted since Tuesday in the market committees by the traders demanding that the rates be reduced immediately.

Against this backdrop, Guardian Minister Dada Bhuse held a meeting with traders and representatives of market committees. District Collector Jalaj Sharma, District Superintendent of Police Shahaji Umap, District Deputy Registrar Fayyaz Mulani, and others were present in this meeting held at the Collector's office.

On September 26, Minister of Commerce Abdul Sattar called a meeting regarding the issue of traders. Emphasis is being placed on solving the problems of onion traders and farmers and the demands of the traders have been conveyed to the government. Bhuse appealed to withdraw the strike and said that there is a possibility that the Minister of Commerce will take a decision soon.

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Traders complained about the onion being sold domestically through NAFED and NCCF and demanded an immediate stop to this sale. Guardian Minister Bhuse said that the job of these two systems is to maintain stability in the market. After the appeal of the guardian minister, the trade associations said that they would discuss with all the market committees. However, there was no response to restart the auction.

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In Nashik district, the auction was closed for the third day in a row on Thursday, September 21. The government has ordered the market committees to suspend the licenses of the traders and take action to confiscate the embers. Accordingly, the meeting of directors of the Lasalgaon market committee was held on Thursday. As per the decision, show-cause notices have been served to 131 traders and clarification has been sought by Friday.