Farmers demand e-auction yards to check arhtiyas-ladanis nexus Measures suggested • All auction yards be brought under e-surveillance of audio and video-based high-quality CCTV cameras to check “underhand deals” of commission agents and ‘ladanis’ or buyers.• Selling price of product be displayed on the electronic screens the time the fruit or vegetables are sold on the auction yard.• Each APMC, including Agricultural Marketing Board, assure that licensing authorities give licence with bank guarantee and no commission agents are allowed to operate shops outside the auction yard. Either issue I-cards or maintain a list of the buyers. Kuldeep Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, December 4 Farmers in the state have demanded that all auction yards be brought under e-surveillance of audio and video-based high-quality CCTV cameras to check “underhand deals” of commission agents and ‘ladanis’ or buyers. The selling price of the product should be displayed on the electronic screens the time the fruit or vegetables are sold on the auction yard.The farmers have kept their fingers crossed over the proposed move of the State Agricultural Marketing Board to put the auction online. “We tried online trading in the 1990s for a year and sold 40,000 apple boxes to buyers in Bangalore, Calicut, Coimbatore and other places,” said Surender Thakur, an orchardist from Kotgarh.But back then the buyers could not see the fruit online, which they can now. It would be better if APMC launched online auction at small places in the apple belt, he added. The result from the Bhuntar-based auction yard was put online during Kullu Dasehra when the apple season was at its fag-end, said Mahender Upadhayay, president of Kullu Valley Growers’ Association. “We have not got its results so far but the best way to check the commission agents-ladanis underhand nexus is by putting CCTV cameras and displaying the selling price of the farmer on the screen so that he knows it,” he added. The farmers demanded that the single licensing authority that ensures bank guarantee should be put in place and auction yards be monitored by the CCTV cameras. “The online trade would not be possible as each auction does not have automatic grading platform like the private players, such as Adani Agri fresh has,” Surender said. Secondly, the major problem is that the Agricultural marketing board has no list of buyers or ‘ladanis’ with it. The National Institute of Agricultural Management (NIAM), Jaipur, maintains a list of buyers but the board never bothered to issue I-cards or maintain a list of the buyers. In many cases, buyers do not make payments to the commission agents, said the arhtiyas. Each APMC, including board, have to assure that licensing authorities give licence with the bank guarantee and no commission agents are allowed to operate shops outside the auction yard, said Vineet Sarjolta. The buyers-arhityas nexus can be checked under the high quality CCTV cameras. Once buyers are registered in the auction yard, they can be caught if they cheat or flee, he added. HS Baveja, managing director of the board, said the board mulled putting major auction yards online, which would check the malpractices in the trade, including evasion of market fee. “Each yard would cost about Rs 5 lakh and we are developing software and assessing the experiment of Bhuntar Mandi,” he added.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 03:50:47 +0000
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