Journalism of Courage
AS THE strike called by retail vegetable sellers entered its third day, availability and prices of vegetables continued to bother the city’s residents. In order to address the issue, the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB) has now decided to increase the frequency of farmer markets in the city and provide police protection to farmers.
The issue of recovery of commission from the buyers has irked the retailers who since Sunday have gone on an indefinite strike. Other than the sub markets, the retail markets, including the smaller kiosks and road side vendors, have stopped operations.
This has caused problems across the city with residents complaining of non-availability of fresh vegetables. Nimisha Nambiar, a resident of NIBM, said vegetable rates have soared in their area since Monday. “In order to purchase vegetables, I had to go to a super market on Wednesday,” she said.
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Tasneem Kudrati, another resident of NIBM, said that some of the smaller retailers had promised resumption of services by Wednesday. “Some of the traders were ready to deliver vegetables at home but at a higher price,” she said.
Residents of Baner, Warje and Bavdhan had faced similar problems with many of the smaller shops being closed. Abhijeet Falke, a resident of Warje, said that smaller retailers are still closed in the area. “We tied up with some farmers who came to sell vegetables directly at the housing societies,” he said.
In order to tide over the strike, the MSAMB is considering the possibility of increasing the frequency of weekly farmers’ markets in the city. Dr Bhaskar Patil, assistant general manager of MSAMB, said instead of a weekly bazaar they plan to hold the market twice or thrice a week. “Every Wednesday, the farmer’s market is held in Wakad, Tanajinagar, Chinchwad, Yamunanagar and Kalewadi. This Wednesday, the market would be also be held at Kothrud, Pimple Saudagar, Balewadi, Ravet and Nigdi,” he said. The markets would be open between 9 am and 5 pm.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, traders from the Mahatma Phule market in Pune announced that they will be meeting the Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh in Mumbai on Thursday. Dr Padmashri Patil, secretary of the traders organisation said they demand that the 10 per cent commission being levied from them be waived off and they be allowed to buy directly from the farmers.
