THE GOAN NETWORK
BELAGAVI
Amid an ongoing shortage of beef supplies from Belagavi, vegetable supplies to Goa are also likely to affected for a few days following the closure of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) wholesale vegetable market, as the part of Karnataka bandh on Monday.
There will be no supplies to Goa on Tuesday as well, since the APMC market has its weekly off on Tuesday.
Traders have warned that if the Karnataka government does not rollback its decision, the APMC would be shut down for an indefinite time.
Shutting down their mandis on Monday, merchants at the APMC in Belagavi, a major supplier of vegetables to Goa, also extended their support to statewide bandh on Monday to protest against Karnataka government's decision of increasing the market user cess.
Business transactions in the APMC were completely shut down in the market yard at Belagavi as the merchants had closed their shops.
The farmers were also asked not to bring their produce to the market since the market would be shut for a day.
“However, some farmers who had brought the vegetable to market faced problems as the dispatch of vegetables to Goa and other districts of the state was stopped,” said a leading supplier to Goa.
“Earlier, the user cess was 0.35% of the transaction value and it is now being increased to 1%. This will be an additional burden on traders and farmers and will have impact on consumers.”
“The government has made amendments in the APMC Bill which allows farmers to sell their produce anywhere, but this has also affected the inflow of farm produce in the market affecting the transactions in APMC. This has put the traders in a quandary,” the supplier added.
