To protest against the imposition of agricultural duty on agricultural produce in Jharkhand, the arrival of food grains in the State has been completely stopped from Monday on the call of the State’s apex traders’ body Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI).
Dispatch of goods by rice mills, pulse mills and oil millers has also been stopped from. Potatoes and onions which were in transit are arriving, but new orders are closed. Ranchi Chamber, Potato Onion Wholesalers Association and Forest Produce Association jointly inspected the Pandara market and reviewed it late in the evening and they received assurance from traders that the arrival of goods would be completely closed till further instructions of the Chamber.
Apart from Ranchi, the arrival of goods in the mandis of other districts has been completely stopped. In the entire Giridih district, the arrival of all types of food items from other states is closed. In Deoghar too, the arrival was completely closed. The markets of Gumla, Simdega, Lohardaga and Khunti are dependent on the Pandara market. Since the Pandara market was open yesterday, the train leaving from Pandara went to these places today, but today far fewer trucks went as compared to normal days. The traders of the Agricultural Market Committee located at Barwadda (Dhanbad) have stopped placing new orders. The stock of food grains is around 15 days after the arrivals stop. If the movement of wholesale traders continues, it will become difficult to get food grains. On the instructions of the Chamber, the arrival of food grains in Bokaro, Daltonganj, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Dumka, Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur also remained very less as compared to other days.
Chamber general secretary Rahul Maru said that the business from the mandi would continue despite the closure of the arrival of food grains. “Whatever stock is in the godown, will be made available in the mandi, there will be buying and selling because our motive is not to disturb the general public, this movement is against the decisions of the State Government,” he added.
FJCCI, Chief, Dheeraj Taneja said that despite the state-level protest going on for the last one month, due to the lack of cognizance by the Government in the direction of abolishing this bill, the arrival of food grains from other states in Jharkhand has been completely stopped. Supply will be completely closed within Jharkhand at the level of mill, cold storage stockist. During this inter-district sale of stock available at the level of the shopkeeper will continue and during this period only the goods coming in billed transit till May 15 will be received, new goods will not be called. We understand that this decision will affect the availability of food items in the State, which is likely to cause hardship to the consumers in the near future, but due to the effect of this irrational bill, there is a rise in the prices of food items as well as corruption and corruption in the guise of this duty,” he added.