Bengaluru: Visit city markets and you could buy one- and –a- half kgs of onions for Rs 10 and one kg of tomatoes for just Rs 8 as farmers with a glut of produce and no one to buy them on account of the demonetisation are selling their vegetables at throwaway prices.
"Go to any vegetable market and you will find more agents than customers. These agents offer Rs 800 for the old Rs 1000 denomination notes, and many are willing to exchange their money this way as they have no cash. With both customers and traders short of money we have no buyers,” complained Mr. Binnimangala Kumara, a vegetable grower from Yelahanka.
Floriculturists too are feeling the heat of demonetisation. While they have little trouble exporting flowers, their local consumption has been hit badly owing to the cash crunch.
Farmers dump vegetables
Farmer Rajappa Peeragar, 46, from the hamlet of Guledakoppa in Dharwad taluk, arrived at the wholesale vegetable market with two quintals of tomatoes in his tractor on Thursday only to return with neither his produce nor any money. Seeing the drastic fall in their price he dumped his tomatoes rather than take them back to his village as their sale would not even cover his transportation cost. Rajappa is only one of many farmers, who are suffering huge losses due to the cash crunch that has left vegetable markets without buyers.
CM takes up farmers’ cause with Jaitley
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written to Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley to direct the Reserve Bank of India to allow District Central Co-operative Banks (DCC) in the state to accept deposits of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes and exchange them for lower denomination currencies in the interest of the farmers who bank with them.
Noting that the 706 branches of DCC banks had Rs. 45.91 lakh deposit accounts and 21.73 lakh loan accounts, he said following decision of the RBI to bar them from accepting deposits in old currency notes or exchange them for new, farmers were not able to get crop loans from them or repay their existing loans.
“If farmers fail to repay their crop loan in the time given, they will not be eligible for interest subsidy provided by the government. Currently they are not able to get new loans for their rabi crop either,” the Chief Minister pointed out in his letter.
Observing that most farmers and their families depended on DCC banks for their financial needs, he said barring them from the demonetisation scheme amounted to “un- banking” millions of farmers in one stroke without providing an alternative.
“Therefore there is an urgent need to review the RBI circular dated November 14 barring DCC banks from accepting higher denomination notes as deposits,” he emphasised, adding, “I urge you to issue suitable instructions to the RBI to modify the circular dated November 14 and restore the DCC Banks’ eligibility to accept deposits as per the guidelines of the scheme and to work on par with commercial banks.”
