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MANGALORE, Jan. 20

CLOSE on the heels of arecanut traders accusing harassment by the Government agencies for moving to a centralised marketing yard, the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) has now accused the traders of trying to prevent any attempt to systematise and streamline commodity trading.

The Karnataka Government, in an attempt to facilitate the marketing of agricultural commodities, has sought to shift all trading activities to marketing yards under the jurisdiction of the State-controlled APMCs. The objective of this move is to ensure that trading activities are streamlined for the benefit of the farmers and also others involved in the procurement chain from commission agents to processors.

While the traders have accused APMC of not providing enough facilities at its marketing yard at Baikampady near here, the APMC Chairman on his part has said the Government had already spent over Rs. 25 crore to provide the traders with adequate infrastructural facilities, including godowns, commercial complexes, auctioning centres and garbling sheds.

The trade bandh called by the traders on January 25, according to the APMC Chairman, Mr Melwyn D'Cunha, was illegal. He also alleged that the Government's attempts to protect growers from the clutches of middlemen had raised the hackles of the traders who were now cooking up excuses to avoid moving to the marketing yard. In fact, according to Mr. D'Cunha, this ridiculous move of organising a bandh amounts to harassing the farmer who ostensibly was the raison d'etre of the APMC marketing yards.

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Farm products' marketing -- Karnataka bid to streamline activities

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