Several tractors carrying paddy bags were seen lined up on both sides of the road in front of the regulated market in Ammoor near Ranipet on Tuesday.
The main gate of the market was closed due to the piling up of bags in the open space inside the market, due to lack of storage space.
The Ammoor regulated market which normally handles about 3500 bags daily has been facing excessively heavy arrivals in the last four days owing to surplus paddy production in the Sholinghur, Arakkonam, Ponnai, Katpadi and Kaveripakkam areas of Vellore district as well as Tiruttani in the neighbouring Tiruvallur district.
About 15,000 paddy bags have piled up inside the market in the last one week. Owing to lack of storage space, the authorities of the regulated market have been closing the main gate for the last four days, forcing the tractors carrying the paddy bags to be parked on both sides of the road.
Appeal When asked about the problem, B. Kumaran, superintendent of the regulated market said that for the last one week, a board had been displayed outside the market, appealing to the farmers not to bring their produce till April 2 in view of the excessive stocks piling up inside the market.
C. Gopinathan, Secretary, Vellore District Market Committee said that the farmers were also being informed orally during the reading of the prices and disbursement of cash daily about the piling of the stocks and advised to bring stocks after April 2 when the situation would ease.
Besides lack of space, another problem was the difficulty in traders obtaining funds from banks to pay the farmers on account of the financial year end restrictions on outflow of funds. On Mondays and Fridays, the market could take an additional 50 bags, and the situation would return to normality within 10 days, he said.
Storage capacity The Secretary said that while the regulated market in Ammoor has five sheds each of 500 metric tonnes (MT) capacity for storage, at any given time, only 350 MT could be stored in each shed in order to provide space for movement.
The government has issued an order even before the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule for the construction of four additional sheds in the Ammoor market, each of 500 MT capacity. Tenders would be floated for construction of the same after elections , he said.
