Farmers attack market office in Hyderabad after feeling cheated by online procurement system

Farmers attacked the office of a market yard in Hyderabad on Thursday, alleging that they were being cheated through the online procurement system that was recently introduced. The irate chilli farmers damaged the furniture leading to escalation of tension. The police here had to intervene to control the situation. They then shut the gates to the market yard. The incident occurred at Malakpet, a major chilli and onion market in the city. The farmers complained that they were not getting remunerative prices for their produce. They had heated argument with officials of the marketing department. Raising slogans against the officials, the farmers attacked the office, leading to tension in the market. The electronic weighing machine linked to eNAM portal, an agro e-trading platform, was inaugurated at the market only last week. Farmers complained that injustice was being done to them through online procurement. The officials, however, denied the allegations and said the system was being implemented in a transparent manner. The market has been witnessing problems over the last three weeks due to cash crunch. The onion market remained shut as traders had no liquid cash to procure stocks or to pay to porters. IANS