Mangaluru: If you ever visited or passed through the Baikampady area along NH 66, you will find the entrance of the beautiful APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee) yard, which was built for wholesale traders of agricultural products. While entering the area on the beautiful concrete road, you would expect to come upon a bustling scene with several agricultural producers conducting business, but you would be wrong. What you will find in front of you is not bustling business, but what looks like a ghost town. This is because most of the shops that were built for traders lie vacant and are covered in filth and weeds.
This APMC yard is spread over an area of 83 acres of land and has been built at a cost of Rs 30 crores. However, it has remained unutilised for about two decades!. Of the 330 warehouses, 70 per cent are vacant and the remaining 30 per cent are being used by cashew and arecanut vendors.
When this beautiful building was built, the traders who ran their businesses in the Bunder area in Mangaluru, were asked to move to the APMC yard, but the government’s direction went unaswered. As a majority of the traders did not shift to the APMC yard, the committee is now facing a shortage of funds, while the empty structures go unused. Several traders continue to run their business in the Bunder area as it is considered to be a sub-yard of the APMC.
Some businesses had built their godowns and processing centres in the APMC yard, but due to large-scale theft, labour issues and extra cost for transport, they returned to their original bases, leaving the yard in its current plight.
The APMC was built by the government as an answer to the areacanut processors’ demands. It was supposed to be used exclusively by them, but it ran into problems from the beginning as the location was wrong and most of the areacanut is grown in the southern part of the city. The APMC is in the north.
Apart from this, most of the labourers are also based in the southern part of the city. Even though some traders have occupied the some structures in the yard, they returned back to the Bunder area claiming that there is no business at the APMC.
Panambur Beach Development Chief Executive Officer Yathish Baikampady told Newskarnataka.com that the government should not allow the public’s money to go to waste. “As the APMC is meant for the marketing of agricultural produce, it should be reserved for the same purpose. The area can be converted into a tourist destination if different types of value-added products of the agriculture produce are also available,” he said.
Former president of the APMC, Monappa Shetty Ekkar said that several efforts were made to move the traders from Bunder to the APMC. “However, the traders are not ready to occupy the APMC yard as they say they will incur a loss if they move. Even the threat of not renewing the traders’ license if they don’t move to the APMC yard did not work,” he said.
Social activist G K Bhat, when asked about the issue, said that he has already written a letter to Mangaluru North MLA Dr Y Bharath Shetty, demanding that appropriate measures be taken in this regard. “If the APMC yard is not used for its intended purpose, the government should use it for activities that help the general public. Why is the government simply wasting the public’s money? If the government had made it mandatory for traders to move to the APMC yard, then everyone would have occupied it. But, due to the lobbying of traders, the government did not take such bold measures,” he lamented.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
