IN PROTEST: Farmers staging a rasta roko on the National Highway between Hubli and Dharwad on Tuesday.

DHARWAD: Following the government order on stopping procurement of `A' grade onions, the Dharwad district administration will stop its purchase from Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner M.S. Srikar told presspersons here on Tuesday that since the government order was issued on Monday night, there was little time to convey the message to farmers.

So, a decision was taken to continue procurement till 5 p.m. on Tuesday. However, the procurement of `B' and `C' grade onions would continue, he said.

To a query, Mr. Srikar said over three lakh tonnes of onion had been procured through three procurement centres in the district at Annigeri, Morab and Amargol (Hubli), of which over 90 per cent was `A' grade variety. He said the onions procured had already been sold at various centres such as Hyderabad and Bangalore.

On the condition of residential schools for children with disabilities in the district, he said following the decision taken to conduct surprise checks, the squads set up for the purpose had completed conducting checks on all such schools.

Several schools were found having shortage of required staff that had been rectified. There was complaint about inferior quality food being served in some schools. The institutions concerned had already been warned to rectify it, he said.

Rasta roko

Farmers led by leaders belonging to various political parties staged a rasta roko for over an hour on the old national highway between Hubli and Dharwad in protest against the decision to stop procurement of `A' grade onions from Wednesday.

The protesters threw onions on the road and claimed that they would not budge until the district administration continued the procurement. Following the protest vehicle movement between the twin cities was disrupted.

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