Traders call off onion stir

NASHIK, June 19: Traders at the Lasalgaon wholesale market yard withdrew their ten-day-old boycott on the auction of onions today, following a reduction in the board levy by three per cent.

At a meeting called by the district collector Manoj Saunik yesterday, it was decided to reduce the levy imposed by the local Mathadi board from 25 to 22 per cent. It was also decided that the board would meet members of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee in the district to redress the grievances of traders within a month.

The traders and a section of Mathadi workers at the Lasalgaon Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation APMC, which is the largest onion marketyard in the country boycotted auctions from June 9, following a hike in the Mathadi levy from 17 to 25 per cent. The local Mathadi Board chairman and deputy labour commissioner A A Mapkar had issued orders hiking the levy from June 1.