Castor futures in the Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange have shot up to unprecedented dizzy heights in barely 48 hours. Market sources revealed that the June futures which were being quoted at Rs 1,501.50 per quintal on last Tuesday have shot up in just two sessions to Rs 1,560 per quintal since it is feared that there may be a paucity of the commodity in the coming days.

Prices of other major commodities including silium seeds (isabgol), cumin seeds, rapeseeds and castor seeds which are ruling at the season's low at present are, however, likely to go up in the coming days with hoarders expected to charge risk money too. At present, prices of silium seeds are being quoted at Rs 350 per 20 kg as against last year's peak of Rs600 per 20 kg. Similarly, cumin seeds are being quoted at Rs 1,100 per 20 kg against the season peak of Rs 1,300/20 kg, rapeseed at Rs 230/20 kg against Rs 250/20 kg and castorseed at Rs 295/20 kg against Rs 315/20 kg.

According to market analysts, it may take at least 15 days for normalcy to return to the market yards since it takes a minimum of three to four days to commute from Gujarat to Orissa. As usual, the authorities have been taken off guard and have yet to take any concrete step to stem the exodus of workers fleeing the state. In the meantime, major work has come to a halt and ships are idling at sea for scrapping. However, despite the closure of major market yards, state government sources are unable to even make a calculated guess as to the extent of trade volume which has been affected.

It is reported that the market yards in North Gujarat has closed down following mass migration of workers from the region. In Unjha, the largest market yard in Asia as also one of the largest producers ofsilium seeds, closure notices have been issued till May 12 on account of a mass exodus by most of the 8,000-odd workers from the region.

It may be mentioned that panic has gripped workers in major parts of the state over the past few days following circulation of doomsday prophecies and cyclometer papers stating that a cyclone would hit Alang on May 8 that appeared in an Oriya magazine. This created widespread panic among the labour community in Alang, Asia's largest ship breaking yard, which largely hails from Orissa.

The development had ripple effects in adjoining areas including Kandla too where activity has come to a virtual standstill on account of migration of workers.

Reacting sharply to the panic gripping the markets, traders maintained that they had never witnessed such havoc. Comex President Jayesh Shah said, "it defies that such baseless forecasts can cause such panic." Traders even attributed the circulation of doomsday's prophecies to "conspiracies to disturb trade". According to them,the state and central government machineries could have prevented the panic exodus of workers through awareness campaigns. "In any case, this mass hysteria should should teach the government how to tackle similar situations in the future," quipped a leading trader.