Jharkhand braced for a food crisis as nearly a lakh wholesalers dealing in edible items stopped manufacturing and procurement from Wednesday to protest against Jharkhand State Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Bill 2022 which introduces market fee on perishable food commodities.

“We had taken this decision on February 8 and waited for the state government to send us some fillers at least on reconsidering the bill. Unfortunately, nothing has happened. We had met the agriculture minister, secretary and other Congress cabinet ministers and also sent our grievances and apprehension to the chief minister (Hemant Soren) that if the bill is implemented, it will encourage price rise and impact farmers adversely. We had even met the erstwhile governor (Ramesh Bais). We had no option but to go for the indefinite strike,” said Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) president Kishore Mantri.

On February 4, Bais gave his nod to the Jharkhand State Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Bill, 2022, along with some suggestions.

The governor suggested that a thorough discussion with all stakeholders should be ensured during the rule-making process.

The FJCCI president informed that all 28 mandis (agriculture market yards) and 150 rice mills along with wholesaler traders in edible items remained closed on Wednesday and appeals have been made to wholesalers in fruits, vegetables and animal stocks to also join the strike.

“We have got support from wholesalers dealing with animal stocks, fruits and vegetables in the state. Import of consumable items, primarily agricultural products, has been completely halted. The retailers had purchased items from wholesalers on Tuesday as we had warned of the indefinite strike beforehand. But we feel that it will last at the most for a week and the price would rise and there would be a food crisis in the state if the government does not consider our demands,” said Mantri, adding that the state as a whole would incur a loss of nearly Rs 100 crore daily because of the agitation.

Former FJCCI president and executive committee member of Pandra Bazar Samity in Ranchi, Praveen Chabra, stated that once the new rule is implemented, a two per cent market fee on non-perishable items and a 1 per cent market fee on perishable items will be realised.

“In this country, 98 per cent of consumable ready items are imported for trading. The burden will fall on consumers with the implementation of market fees. If those dealing with food grains have to pay a two per cent tax for buying those, they have to sell those at a higher price for maintaining a margin which will be very difficult in competitive markets outside the state,” said Chabra.

Traders under the banner of FJCCI have been protesting against the proposed market fee since April last year. The decision to introduce the fee, under the Jharkhand State Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Bill 2022, received the Assembly nod in March.

“Jharkhand has simply adopted the central government rule and if we do not adopt it, we have to lose out on central government funds for agriculture. The fee is aimed at modernising and improving the infrastructure of agriculture mandis (market yards) in the state. I had tried to make the traders understand that they should wait for the notification of the gazette wherein we would have fixed the fee slabs for different items. They should understand that one per cent and two per cent is the upper limit fixed by the government while it will be less for different food items. Similar taxes in other states are quite high,” said Jharkhand agriculture secretary Abu Bakr Siddiqui.

Bias claim on govt

Outgoing Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais has claimed that he did not wish to destabilise the Hemant Soren-led government and this was the single reason for not disclosing the opinion of the Election Commission on the chief minister.

Ramesh Bais, who would soon join as the 23rd governor of Maharashtra, engaged in an interaction with the media at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Wednesday evening.

When asked about the reason for not disclosing the Election Commission opinion in a“sealed envelope”, he said: “I know Jharkhand has suffered because of political instability in the past and did not wish to add more instability and retard the state’s development by making public the EC’s opinion. Now the ball is in the court of the new governor (C.P. Radhakrishnan).”