Nashik: Facing the heat of soaring onion prices and the upcoming assembly elections, a team of top officials from the Delhi State government arrived in Nashik on Thursday to assess the rates in the local markets. Onion prices were sold at a high of Rs 100/kg this week in the retail markets of New Delhi and parts of north India. The team was shown black-flags by farmers of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna. The Nashik Police swung into action and arrested nearly 20 of them. The team comprising SS Yadav, food and civil supplies commissioner; Rajendra Sharma, chairman of the Azadpur Agriculture produce Marketing Committee and Ramesh Tiwari, agriculture secretary, met the chairmen of the four APMCs in the district. Yadav said that the team was in Nashik to assess the prices, the availability and the possibility of lifting the produce from Nashik.
We are here only for assessing the possibilities (for purchasing onion) and the decision will be taken by the state government. We met the chairmen today and will be visiting the APMCs in the district to get first hand information on Friday,” Yadav said. Sharma sought to underplay the reports that hoarding might have inflated the prices of onion. “The onion being sold in Nashik APMCs now at the rate of Rs 40 is wet. Traders take it from here, transport it to New Delhi, where it is dried and segregated. Better quality onion is made available at the Rs 65 to Rs 75, hence the hoarding has nothing to do with the issue,” Sharma said. Meanwhile, farmers from the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna tried to meet the team. “The officials should have met us when the farmers were getting only Rs 2 per kg for the produce and not when they are getting Rs 20 to Rs 40,” Deepak Pagar, district unit head of the Sanghatna, said. Pagar also demanded that the Maharashtra government give a grant of Rs 1 lakh per acre for farmers whose crops have been damaged.
Bureau Report
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