Procurement of onion was hampered at the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard here on Wednesday as farmers turned agitated over officials allegedly refusing to buy onion outside the grading system.
However, the situation calmed down and procurement continued following the intervention of Navalgund MLA N.H. Konaraddi and the police who managed to pacify the farmers.
The farmers and the officials were at loggerheads over commodity grading. While the farmers were demanding that officials purchase the commodity without following the grading system, the officials expressed helplessness saying that they cannot flout norms.
The farmers were averse to officials rejecting onion smaller in size, rotten or sprouted.
On Wednesday, the farmers got agitated when the officials raised some objections over the quality of the produce and did not allow the procurement process to go on. They also resorted to a protest and parked their vehicles haphazardly. Wednesday was the last day for procuring onion after the district administration extended the process by one week. Consequently, a large quantity of onion arrived at the APMC yard and there were long queues of farmers standing with their produces.
The farmers said that the government had fixed only Rs. 624 per quintal but when they came to sell, it had laid down several conditions. They said that they would have not brought the produce to the APMC yard if these conditions were made known to them in advance. As most of the farmers were from Navalgund, they apprised Mr. Konaraddi of the problem over telephone. Mr. Konaraddi then rushed to the spot and held parleys with the farmers and assured them of their produce being purchased.
Mr. Konaraddi said that he had spoken to the Deputy Commissioner urging him to dropping the grading system. Though the officials were not ready to listen to the MLA, he requested Deputy Commissioner S.B. Bommanahalli over telephone to issue directions to the officials. He also requested the farmers to cooperate with the officials so that the procurement process could go on. Later, the procurement process resumed.
