Hyderabad: Middlemen at the Rythu Bazaars occupying shops allocated to farmers have been raising prices despite the model prices fixed by the marketing department exploiting the customers.
The middlemen present at all the 19 Rythu Bazaars in GHMC limits fix the prices without following the guidelines issued by the marketing department. As a result, the customers have to bear the burden of higher cost.
G.K. Satwika from S.R. Nagar who went to Erragadda Rythu Bazaar said that the price board stated the cost of tomatoes (Grade-I) and brinjal as Rs. 13 per kg. However, she did not find the same price at any of the stalls in the market.
“The rates display on the board never match what is quoted at the stalls. I had to purchase tomatoes at Rs. 15 per kg. For carrot, I paid Rs. 15 per kg and french beans Rs. 25 per kg while the model prices were set at Rs. 11 and Rs. 18,” she said.
E. Narsimha, watchman at the Saroornagar Rythu Bazaar, said that farmers sell their cards to middlemen. “As per the rules, 25 per cent of stalls are allotted to self help groups while the remaining to recognised farmers from Ibrahimpatnam and other localities. As many as 90 per cent of the stalls that are allotted to the farmers are seen to have been occupied by middlemen,” he said.
K.R. Vijay Kumar, estate officer of Mehdipatnam Rythu Bazaar, said that the government was planning to implement bio-metric authentication of farmers to curb the menace of middlemen. “We frequently check the situation at stalls. If a stall owner is seen selling vegetables at higher prices, we suspend the licence,” he said.
Additional Director for marketing department G. Laxmi Bai said that the department will introduce bio-metric authentication and ID cards with barcode to farmers soon to control middlemen. “Apart from farmers, we provide the same to self help groups. Once the software is ready, we will introduce the system,” she said.
