The Hindu

• Objections for the move invited from traders
• Government orders renewal of licences

Mangalore, Jul 22: The State Government has initiated steps to declare the Bunder area as Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee’s sub-yard, ending the controversy over the shifting of the wholesale trade from Bunder to Baikampady.

The Government has invited objections to the proposal within 30 days from the date of notification, July 19. But the exercise appears to be a formality, going by what has been said by Agriculture Marketing Minister Shivaraj S. Thangadagi on the subject. Mr. Thangadagi has stated that the Govenment had decided not to shift the Bunder market to Baikampady, for the time being.

Representation

The Minister said this in response to a representation made by MLA N. Yogish Bhat. The latter had sought to help the families of about 600 traders by renewing their licences and declaring the Bunder area as a market sub-yard. The Minister said that several representations had been received from traders and representatives of people, in this regard.

The Government plans to withdraw its order of April 27 in which it had de-notified the Bunder, rendering the wholesale trade in agricultural produce there illegal from that date. Consequent to this, the Agricultural Produce Marketing Yard officials had stopped renewing the licences of traders who refused to shift to Baikampady yard. Mr. Thangadagi said that the Government had issued a direction on July 16 for renewing the licences of traders with retrospective effect.

Background

An APMC yard has come up at Baikampady at a cost of over Rs. 30 crore to facilitate wholesale trade in agricultural produce. Although nearly a decade has passed by, the 81-acre yard remains mostly unoccupied and without activity. The APMC, which is run by an elected committee, was expected to get active with the shifting of trade from Bunder, consequent to April 27 order of de-nofifying the market there.

The traders at Bunder had opposed the Government’s directive fearing loss of business. They cited inconvenience to people and farmers as Baikampady is about 20-km away from the city. The APMC charged the traders with being scared of transparency in their trade practices. Many farmers had made similar allegations.

The APMC authorities and representatives of traders had locked horns over the issue and a month ago, the APMC had announced that the 297 traders had either shifted or were in the process of shifting to Baikampady yard and that they were constructing godowns there. The trade bodies had denied this as false.

A visit to the Baikampady yard revealed that no trader had moved there. However, a lot of construction activity was going on at the place. The construction activity is now expected to be stopped.