Aggrieved farmer writes to PM about false report

Mumbai: The aggrieved farmer from Nashik, who sent his earnings from the sale of onion to the Prime Minister’s Office, has alleged that the district authorities wrongly stated his produce to be of a low quality. The farmer, Sanjay Sathe, Monday wrote to the PMO, highlighting that the authorities had prepared a report about his onion produce without proper inquiry and that the report was false.

Mr Sathe wrote, “I sold 750 kg onion and earned Rs 1,064. But without any inquiry, the state government officials in their report stated that my onions were blackish and of low quality. It is false and officials are misguiding you.”

However, a report  submitted to the Maharashtra government by the district deputy registrar office said that Mr Sathe’s onion was of “medium to low quality” and “blackish” in colour.

“I hope you will understand that if the authorities can lie to you, what kind of challenges a common man faces in government offices,” read Mr Sathe’s letter.

He claimed that nearly every onion grower was facing the same situation of low rates and the state’s “apathy” towards it. The farmer requested the PM to find a solution to this.

Meanwhile, the Lasalga-on Agriculture Produce Market Committee had said last week that the report submitted by the district deputy registrar office to the state government was “false”. No official of the district deputy registrar office had met the APMC authorities in connection with the farmer’s case, they said.

Nashik district in north Maharashtra accounts for about 50 per cent of the onion production in India. The Lasalgaon APMC in Nashik is the country’s largest wholesale onion market.