Welcoming the initiatives taken by the State government for containing the spread of COVID-19, Hyderabad Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HKCCI), an organisation of traders and industrialists, appealed to the government to extend working hours of the APMC market and dall mills.
In a letter to the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary on Thursday, president and secretary of the trade body Prashant S. Manakar and Sharanabasappa M. Pappa have sought revision of operational timings of APMC market and dall mills till 2 p.m. to synchronise them with the working hours of banks so that payment to farmers, hamalis, workers and others involved in the business can be made.
“Farmers who form the core of this [APMC] market are finding it to difficult to bring their foodgrains and sell them in the market between the stipulated 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Further, as bank timings are different from APMC timings, farmers are finding it difficult to receive amount towards foodgrains sold by them in the APMC market. Since no passes/identity cards are issued to farmers either by gram panchayats or by APMCs themselves, their movement to and from APMC market during this lockdown has become a nightmare for them,” the office-bearers of the trade body observed in the letter.
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“Since the APMC Yard and banks have to work hand-in-hand to achieve the economic objective, the same is not possible with the different timings of both APMC and banks. Hence, there is a need to synchronise the timings of APMC market with that of the banks and the APMC market should be allowed to work till 2 p.m.,” they said.