Though the stir has been called off by the wholesale traders in the Capital, the prices of vegetable prices may remain high for next three-four days as only 10 per cent trade took place in Azadpur and in wholesale markets on Tuesday.
Crisis may deepen as the protesters have threatened to intensify the agitation by the end of the week if the Government fails to meet their demand. Traders have been protesting against the abolition of the provision of six per cent commission from farmers. As per the Delhi High Court verdict, the Government has recently notified that commission will be charged from buyers instead of farmers.
The strike was called off after a late night meeting between traders and Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday in which assurance was given to form a 10-member committee, including representatives of traders’ bodies and farmers to find out the way out. However, the traders in wholesale markets are continuing their protest and allowed partial trading on Tuesday.
Anil Malhotra, member of Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) of Azadpur, said that if committee is not formed till Sunday, they will launch a massive strike again from next week. “If we do not get a written assurance from Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia, we will not do business in wholesale markets from Monday onwards,” said Malhotra.
Meanwhile, the prices of vegetables almost doubled as the stock in retail market finished. The retailers said only those vegetables are available which come from border areas of the national Capital. Commodities, which come from remote areas, will take another three days time to reach mandis. As traders called an indefinite strike earlier, the farmers of various States had stopped shipping their vegetables to mandis. “After resuming trade, we reached the mandi but found only those vegetables available which came from Haryana and Western UP. The traders had also increased rates to Rs 10 per kilo which further led to skyrocketing rates of all vegetables,” said Mahesh Chauhan, a vegetable seller of Mukherjee Nagar area.
“Supply of tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and others has been affected as the retailers have asked farmers of Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal to stop sending vegetable trucks. We have a limited quantity of vegetables which we are selling at a higher price,” said Ganesh Rout, a vegetable seller of laxmi Nagar.