Members of the state’s marketing yards, united under the banner of the Ranchi-based Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FJCCI), on Thursday said they would surrender their licences to the government by April 30 and that they will stop selling from the bazaar samities from May 1.

They took the stand after the agriculture minister refused to specify whether the state government was prepared to disband its 28 agricultural marketing yards (krishi bazaar samities).

?We have now decided that members of the 28 agricultural marketing yards will surrender our licences by April 30,” said Vikas Singh, a FJCCI member.

Earlier, a 21-member delegation of various trade bodies from all over the state led by the FJCCI had met agriculture minister Mathura Prasad Mahato at his residence and submitted a memorandum which urged the government to disband the state?s ?corrupt? marketing yard department, the way Bihar had already done.

The memorandum also said that the marketing yards had no relevance in Jharkhand today as apart from being run by a corruption-infested department, the government too was not earning any revenue from it.

Delegation members who met Mahato at his residence said the minister that he would not disband the marketing yards but promised to look into the matter.

?We are very disappointed by his replies,? said a marketing yard member.

Earlier, in a show of solidarity, around 10,000 members of different chambers of commerce & industry from all over Jharkhand converged in Ranchi to ?gherao? the state agriculture minister for not disbanding the yards.

Chambers of commerce & industry in Jharkhand allege that the yards are “dens of corruption” and that the extra 2% tax being levied on all agricultural produce reaching the marketing yards was a burden on consumers.

Chambers also have been saying that the additional 2% levy by Jharkhand was making their stock-in-trade uncompetitive compared to that of neighbouring states like Bengal and Bihar which either did not have marketing yards or did not have a 2% tax on agricultural produce.

?As the purpose of the agricultural marketing yards has been defeated, we want their immediate dissolution in the state,? said secretary, trade & commerce, Bharat Vasani of Jamshedpur-based Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce & Industry.