Mango traders withdraw strike, business as usual in Srinivaspur

Undeclared strike on Monday had left farmers in the lurch

An undeclared strike by the mango traders and middlemen stalled business at  the APMC in Srinivaspur on Monday, leaving farmers and workers in the lurch.

Following the strike, APMC president M Srinivas had called a meeting of the traders and had made it clear that according to rules they have to serve a notice, about holding a strike, a week in advance. He also promised to call a meeting of traders and farmers to clear differences.

On Monday, mango growers had a clue about the strike. But daily-wage workers and farmers who had come from distant areas who were unaware of this, waited the whole day outside the APMC, but had to return empty-handed. Even trucks from neighbouring states were left clueless.

After the meeting, traders withdrew the strike and business was as usual on Tuesday. Mango traders and middlemen had not given a formal notice of the strike nor had stated any reason behind it.

But the sources say that High Court order to check the menace of middlemen had irked them as they could not demand 10 per cent commission from the farmers and were forced to pay the farmers on time.

After the HC order, the mango traders were complaining of APMC officials threatening to cancel their licence for trivial issues and making false allegations against them.

Farmers were in a shock at the recent auction of the mangoes, which was conducted according to the market rules, as raw mangoes a tonne were auctioned for just Rs 3,000 which earlier used to be sold at Rs 7,000 and another variety of mangoes was auctioned for Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 18,000. Disheartened farmers demanded that the auction be conducted like earlier.

But one of the traders blamed it on the farmers, and said farmers were not ready to get mangoes to the APMC.

Dominance

Till recently, mango market owners and traders here used to bully farmers if they complained of irregularities in trade. But, a farmer lodged a complaint, with the Market Committee, against the market owners for conducting chit business.

After reviewing the complaint, licence of a owner was cancelled by the committee.

This action instigated other farmers to lodge complaint and the committee had come forward to take action against the traders.

This is the reason behind traders calling an undeclared strike, say farmers.

“Legal action will be taken against persons not following the rules and legal procedure. The traders are not holding any strike and the business will continue,” said M Krishnan, APMC Secretary, speaking to Deccan Herald.