''Rasta roko' protest by farmers, NCP over onion support price

Thousands of farmers and NCP members today staged a 'rasta roko' protest in the district demanding higher support prices for onion.
Farmers and NCP activists gathered on the main roads in Dindori, Vani, Lasalgaon, Niphad, Devla and Kalwan areas, and staged the protests affecting vehicular traffic, the Rural Police Control Room said.
Support price for onion has decreased significantly at 15 Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) to about Rs 600-700 per quintal, NCP Nashik district chief Ravindra Pagar said.
Nanasaheb Patil, former chairperson of Lasalgaon APMC said, "Following a bumper onion crop in the country, onion prices have declined. Even onion growers could not bear the production cost of Rs 1,000 per acre of the crop."

Patil, who is also the Director of NAFED, lamented that the central government's purchase of 15,000 metric tonnes of onion through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) was much less as compared to lakhs of tonnes of production in Nashik district alone.
Hundreds of farmers from Niphad tehsil of the district yesterday staged an agitation in front of district collectorate and demanded increase in time of power supply for agriculture in wake of the water availability situation getting worse, Niphad MLA Anil Kadam, who led the protest, told reporters.
Kadam submitted a memorandum to the Additional Collector Kanhuraj Bagate and sought uninterrupted electric supply for at least six hours.

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Conmpany Limited (MSEDCL) and the administration curtailed the power supply for the farmers from eight hours to four hours from the beginning of this week, he said.