The cold storage house which is meant to store vegetables at the APMC in Chikkaballapur has become defunct which was constructed five years ago for the benefit of farmers.
The machines at the house have reached a deteriorating state and have become rusty due to non use of the machines.
The cold storage house was inaugurated by then Minister for APMC B S Patil, Minister for Mines and Geology V Muniyappa, MP R L Jalappa, then MLA Anasuyamma Natarajan in the month of May 2002.
It was constructed at a cost of Rs 30 lakh with an objective of helping the farmers from Chikkaballapur, Bagepalli, Gouribidanur and Gudibande. The house was built using modern technology.
Facilities were provided for these farmers to store various crops such as potato, onion and others. But, unfortunately this house which was constructed to help farmers has been abandoned by the farmers themselves.
As a result, lakh of rupees spent by the government is being wasted. On the other hand, the storage house is not used by the farmers also. Added to these, the APMC has been spending thousands of rupees for the maintenance of it. It also has to pay electricity bills as many as Rs 14,000 per month!
Lack of staff
“We have been thinking of disconnecting electricity, said APMC Secretary Puttaraju. There are lack of staff to maintain the storage house too.
Expense for maintaining the house is being taken from the tax paid by the public itself. However the farmers say that, even though major revenue which comes to APMC have been spending on unnecessary things, the officials are not taking suitable action.
Further no private company has come forward to maintain the storage house, it is said.
In Malur, a private company has been contacted in the backdrop of starting Agritech park. The same company has been requested to maintain the cold storage unit here also.
Till now, there has been no response from them. However, tenders will be called to maintain the house, added the Secretary.
However, on the outskirts of the city, a native of Jalandhar has been maintaining a huge cold storage house, but a question arises as to how a small storage unit cannot be maintained by the APMC officials.
