JOIN USThe bandh called by Mysuru Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) at Bandipalya, on the outskirts of the city, on Wednesday, observed to oppose the mandation of e-payment to farmers and also, the proposed e-portal for trading, was near total.
Except for the vegetable markets on the APMC yard and also on the premises of the old APMC yard at Bamboo Bazar in the city, all shops, around 600 of them, on the A and B blocks of the yard remained closed for the day. According to the APMC officials, the loss is estimated to be over Rs 20 crore as the bandh has been observed during the Gowri-Ganesha festival. “The farmers, traders and also customers have been affected due to the bandh. Besides, hundreds of daily wage workers and, drivers and helpers of goods transportation vehicles were rendered jobless for the day,” they said.
“The government has delegated the responsibility to manage e-payment and the e-trading portal to Rastriya e-Market Service (ReMS). e-payment and e-trading was used on a pilot basis in Gadag and Hubballi APMCs. Now, the government intends to extend it to all APMCs.
Initially, it was planned to be applied only for a few items. However, now, the government wishes to bring all foodgrains and cereals under the ambit of e-payment and e-trading. This is not in the interest of either the farmers or the traders,” the agitators said.
Former APMC president Ramesh said, the price of the foodgrains is decided based on the demand for the produce. “Some farmers used to supply their produce by receiving the payment in advance and supplying the produce later. As per the new system, cash cannot be used. All payments have to be done via real time gross settlement (RTGS),” he said.
“Paddy is available in abundance in the yard only for a couple of months in a year. Where will the traders bring so much money to pay to the farmers as thousands of quintals of paddy is traded during these crucial months. So, only moneyed traders can survive. This is the case with the trading of cereals and oil-seeds also. Traders from neighbouring states may take advantage of the situation and spoil the healthy environment in the market,” he said.
However, the traders urged the government to impose an uniform cess across all APMCs in the nation like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to streamline trading.
DH News Service