Onion auctions at 14 agriculture produce market committees (APMCs) in Nashik has been stopped for an indefinite period from Monday following a boycott on purchase by traders.
The boycott is the result of a row between traders and maparis (people weighing the commodity) over the electronic weighing of onions and the refusal of traders to pay higher wages to workers.
A couple of meetings between the Nashik District Onion Traders Association and the Maharashtra Rajya Mathadi Transport Ani General Kamgar Union with the state agriculture and marketing minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Sunil Bansode, district deputy registrar, Nashik, failed to break the deadlock.
Sohanlal Bhandari, president, Nashik District Onion Traders Association, said that there has been 44% rise in wages of workers as per the decision taken by the DDR and one of the clauses in the GR issued by the DDR clearly states ` no work no wages’ for workers. Around 80% of the commodity is now lifted electronically and yet workers are demanding a rise in wages which is unfair, he said.
According to officials, onion traders were against the paying of any kind of levy to Mathadi workers since the onions were being electronically weighed.
Nashik district reports arrivals of around 70,000 to 75,000 quintals of onions on a daily basis and work has come to a halt since the maparis are not available for weighing the commodity.
According to Sunil Yadav, secretary, Maharashtra Rajya Mathadi Transport Ani General Kamgar Union, around 15,000 workers in Nashik are out of work because of the refusal of traders to participate in auctions.
He claimed that the traders owe the workers arrears to the tune of Rs 23 crore since the year 2008 and alleged that the traders have not deposited the levy amount to the Mathadi Board in Nashik unike other parts of the state.