APMC may call for an indefinite bandh from October 1 to protest passage of Farm bills

Mega meeting of all the APMC markets is planned on September 27 to decide on future course of action

@AbhitashS

Navi Mumbai: Following the Bharat Bandh call in protest of the Farm bills passed by the Center, the Chamber of Association of Maharashtra Industry and Trade (CAMIT) and The Federation of Association of Traders (TFAT), Pune have given an Indefinite Bandh call from October 1 at all the 306 Agricultural Produce Market Committee’s (APMCs) all over the state. The move is bound to affect availability of vegetables and other essential commodities pushing up the prices and affecting the common man.

A decision to this effect was taken at a recent zoom meeting of the action committee of APMC traders held under the aegis of CAMIT and TFAT, Pune. The meeting chaired by CAMIT Chairman Mohan Gurnani and President Dipen Agarwal and President of The Federation of Association of Traders Valchand Sancheti decided to call for a meeting of all the APMC Markets on September 27 to decide about the indefinite bandh of all the APMC markets from October 1.

Mohan Gurnani, Chairman of CAMIT said, ” After a lot of discussion it was decided to call a larger virtual meeting of all the 306 APMC Markets to decide about the future course of action to protest against the injustice meted out to the traders dealing with the APMC Market yards as a result of farm act namely – ‘The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) passed in the Parliament on September 23. All present in the meeting felt that the bill is discriminatory against the traders dealing within the APMC market yards, since they will have to pay the market fee whereas the traders, large corporate and multinational companies dealing outside the market yard will not have to pay anything. There are now only two options to protest, one is to stop payment of market fee to APMC and the other is to close the market indefinitely till some solutions is not found.

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Gurnani further added, ” It is a well-known fact that the big corporator as well as multinational companies like Wal-Mart are trying to enter into food grain business and after passage of this bill, they will not have to pay market fee and other market expenses, whereas the traders dealing from within the APMC Market will not only have to be subjected to APMC rules but will also have to pay market fee ranging from 1 to 3 percent which will make small traders uncompetitive against the big corporate and multinational companies.”

“Earlier we have already met the authorities in Maharashtra including Sharad Pawar and have pleaded that the small Indian traders who are working from within the APMC market be given level playing field, but unfortunately with this discrimination all small traders will become jobless. Hence a bigger meeting of all the APMC market is planned on September 27 to decide about the indefinite bandh which has to be observed from October 1”, informed Mohan Gurnani.-By Abhitash D.Singh