Key Takeaways
- The onion issue has prompted a high‑level meeting in Delhi to protect farmers and consumers.
- The government will buy 2 lakh metric tonnes of onions via NAFED and NCCF at Rs 2,410 per quintal.
- State leaders, including Ajit Pawar, urged traders to lift the auction ban in Nashik.
Mumbai: Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal informed the public on Tuesday night that a meeting will be held in Delhi with a delegation of state cabinet ministers on September 29 to resolve the ongoing onion issue in the state of Maharashtra.
In this regard, a special meeting was organised in presence of Goyal and state Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar at Sahyadri Government Guest House in Mumbai in the background of bandh called by onion traders in Nashik district.
Union Minister of State for Health Bharti Pawar, Deputy Speaker Narhari Jirwal, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Chhagan Bhujbal, Minister for Agriculture Dhananjay Munde, Minister for Public Works (Public Enterprises), Guardian Minister of Nashik Dadaji Bhuse, Minister for Marketing Abdul Sattar, MLA Hiraman Khoskar, MLA Rahul Aher, MLA Nitin Pawar, and top brass officials were present.
To aid onion producer farmers, representatives demanded that NAFED and NCCF purchase onions directly from them. The purchase will occur at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee’s (APMC) premises, ensuring fair prices for growers.
The state government is trying its best to protect the interests of onion producers, traders, and consumers as well.
Therefore, Union Minister Goyal and Deputy Chief Minister Pawar appealed to the traders in Nashik district to withdraw the auction ban decision and start buying onions immediately to avoid inconvenience to onion producers and consumers.
The central government’s decision to purchase 2 lakh metric tonnes of onion at the rate of Rs 2,410 per quintal through NAFED and ‘NCCF’ proved to be beneficial for both onion producers and consumers. But since onions purchased through NAFED and ‘NCCF’ are available to private traders in other states at a lower price, the traders in the state also had to sell their onions at a lower price than the purchase price. Due to this, traders started losing money; they had stopped the onion auction in the APMC of Nashik district, resulting in onion farmers being affected by it.
Against this backdrop, Pawar tried to sort out the issue by holding two consecutive meetings at the Mantralaya and Sahyadri guest houses, in which he promised that the state government was committed to protecting the interests of onion producers, traders, and consumers in the state.
