NCP workers dump onions at secretariat entrance over low price

A group of women workers of NCP today dumped onions at the main entrance of the secretariat to protest against the low market price for the produce.
These onions belonged to a farmer, who had earlier buried them on his farm and had run his tractor on them due to his frustration over low market price for the crop.
The women party workers were carrying a letter written by NCP leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, in which she urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to be sensitive towards the problems of the onion producing farmers, "who are facing lot of problems".

The women party workers actually wanted to storm into Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' office on the sixth floor of the secretariat building, but dumped the onions at the main entrance when they were stopped by the security personnel.
This group of about seven to eight women party workers was whisked away to the local police station afterwards. The NCP said it was a symbolic protest against the low market price.
In her letter addressed to the chief minister, Sule said a farmer Dattatraya Shinde from Rahu village of Daund taluka in her constituency Baramati, had buried his onions on the farm and run his tractor over them.

She said she visited the farmer when she came to know about the incident. "I was told he took the step because of the low gaurantee price and high cost of transportation," her letter said.

"This year there has been a good crop, but there has been no improvement in the market price for the agriculture produce," it said.
According to Sule, the farmer told her that he had spent Rs 35,000-40,000 per acre. But due to the low market price, he cannot recover the production cost. "Now how will I repay the loan," Sule said quoting the farmer.
She said earlier there was an incident in Nashik district, where a farmer burnt his entire standing crop spread over five acres.

"Onion producing farmers are facing lot of problems," she said and urged Fadnavis to be sensitive towards their woes and take a policy decision in this regard.
She demanded that the government should announce a guarantee price, which is 50 per cent more than the production cost.
She said she was sending some onions, which were buried in the farm by Shinde, to the chief minister "so that he can get an idea of the grim situation faced by onion growers".