Ranchi: The Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) ended its week-long stir to disrupt the food supply chain in protest against the Jharkhand State Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Bill, 2022.
FJCCI, the apex traders’ body in the state, said it had called off its protest after assurance from minister Alamgir Alam to work in the interest of the traders.
Earlier this week, the Raj Bhavan returned the bill to the state government citing anomalies in the English and Hindi versions of the draft. The bill, which was passed in the assembly in March this year, is aimed at strengthening the vegetable mandis and increasing the farmers’ income.
The bill proposes one to two per cent tax on procurement of agri products by brokers from the farmers while the latter didn’t have to pay any additional tax.
Traders, however, opposed this move, demanding the complete rollback of the bill, claiming that it will put an additional burden on people and lead to inflation of food items.
Since May 16, traders began protests under which they stopped procurement of products from the mandis and rice mills had stopped selling their stock to retailers, triggering fears of possible scarcity of food in the market.
Talking to TOI, FJCCI president Dheeraj Taneja on Saturday said they have called off the stir after a meeting with Alamgir Alam, the Congress’s leader of the legislative party and minister in the Hemant Soren government a day earlier. “He (Alamgir) promised us that the government will take a considerate view and it won’t do anything to burden or upset the people. Since he is a key member of the government, we have ended the stir on his request. However, if the government tries to push the bill again, we will in principle oppose such mandi taxes (bill).”
FJCCI, the apex traders’ body in the state, said it had called off its protest after assurance from minister Alamgir Alam to work in the interest of the traders.
Earlier this week, the Raj Bhavan returned the bill to the state government citing anomalies in the English and Hindi versions of the draft. The bill, which was passed in the assembly in March this year, is aimed at strengthening the vegetable mandis and increasing the farmers’ income.
The bill proposes one to two per cent tax on procurement of agri products by brokers from the farmers while the latter didn’t have to pay any additional tax.
Traders, however, opposed this move, demanding the complete rollback of the bill, claiming that it will put an additional burden on people and lead to inflation of food items.
Since May 16, traders began protests under which they stopped procurement of products from the mandis and rice mills had stopped selling their stock to retailers, triggering fears of possible scarcity of food in the market.
Talking to TOI, FJCCI president Dheeraj Taneja on Saturday said they have called off the stir after a meeting with Alamgir Alam, the Congress’s leader of the legislative party and minister in the Hemant Soren government a day earlier. “He (Alamgir) promised us that the government will take a considerate view and it won’t do anything to burden or upset the people. Since he is a key member of the government, we have ended the stir on his request. However, if the government tries to push the bill again, we will in principle oppose such mandi taxes (bill).”