Onion auctions at 15 Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs), including Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon Baswant here came to a halt on Monday following boycott on onion-purchase by traders, protesting notices by the district administration to pay levy dues of Rs 8.5 crore.
Sohanlal Bhandari, president of Nashik District Onion Traders Association, said that the boycott on purchase of onions is for a indefinite period, beginning on Monday. The levy issue between 'mathadi' workers and traders is quite old and is presently sub judice, he said. Two days back, the Nashik District Collector P Velrasu had issued notices to the onion traders asking them to pay the levy dues to mathadi workers, which run into Rs 8.5 crore.
According to Bhandari, in the notice, the Collector warned the traders that if they failed to pay the dues to the mathadi workers, their bank accounts would be frozen. Bhandari said traders are meeting State Agriculture and Marketing minister in Mumbai on Monday to solve the issue. Farmers, who were facing losses since past month following marginal drop in onion prices, were further hit following traders decision not to purchase or participate in onion auctions.