Hansraj Patil, youth president of farmers’ body Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, said what was a necessity during the cash crunch has now become a common instrument of duping farmers. (Representational Image)
The district deputy registrar (DDR) has issued showcause notices for suspension to directors of five wholesale market committees in Nashik for allegedly failing to pay onion farmers. The notices were issued after an investigation by Nilkanth Karhe, DDR, Nashik, revealed that about 20 traders operating in the markets had allegedly duped 1,500 farmers to the tune of Rs 5 crore.
Karhe said, in all the cases, traders had paid farmers through cheques. “However, when deposited for encashment, the cheques bounced. It was revealed that the traders did not have sufficient balance in their accounts,” he said. Further investigation revealed that the traders in question were operating without depositing the mandatory security deposits, while the market committees had turned a blind eye, added Karhe.
The notices were issued to the board of directors of the market committees of Manmad, Malegaon, Yewala, Umrane and Devala for their alleged role in the scam. “The final order will be passed after a hearing on May 11,” he said.
Payment through post-dated cheques have become a norm in almost all wholesale markets of Nashik, since demonetisation, in 2016. Infact, the district collector of Nashik had talked about setting up special branches of public sector banks to help farmers encash the cheques faster.
Traders, while issuing the cheques, ask farmers to deposit them after 15 to 30 days. Only a handful of traders prefer to transfer money through electronic means and even that faces technical roadblocks like bad network etc. Almost two years have passed since demonetisation, yet most of the traders in wholesale markets still prefer to deal in cheques.
Hansraj Patil, youth president of farmers’ body Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, said what was a necessity during the cash crunch has now become a common instrument of duping farmers. “Over the last two months, most of the traders have issued post-dated cheques, which have bounced. They say they have faced losses in business and hence could not maintain necessary credit in their banks,” he said. Patil added that the farmers’ body had received numerous complaints about such incidents and took it up with the DDR’s office.
Patil, demanding compulsory cash or same day electronic transfer of funds, said necessary instructions should be issued to market committees to make preparations for the same.