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Partial response to `Bhopal bandh'

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, DEC 20. The call for a Statewide bandh by traders opposing corporate procurement of grains outside the Mandi premises evoked a partial response from a section of whole-sellers while those engaged in retail trade continued with their normal business on Monday. When contacted, the State Principal Secretary (Home), Bhagirath Prasad, told The Hindu that normal life was not affected and there was only a partial response to the traders' bandh call.

The call for the bandh had been issued by the licensed grain and oilseed traders opposing the centres set up by ITC Limited for procurement of foodgrains in villages across the State. ITC introduced its e-chaupal model in Madhya Pradesh in September 2001. These e-chaupals, run exclusively by farmers, have become the hubs for disseminating the rates at which ITC was to procure grains on a daily basis. The licensed traders are demanding amendments to the Mandi Act to make it mandatory for the corporate sector to go for open bidding at the Mandi premises. The farmers, who have got used to the ITC procurement centres backed by e-chaupals, even held a rally here on December 17 to convey the message that they were certainly gaining from the globalisation process as well as the computer-based information system and cannot allow the mandis to monopolise the procurement process.

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