Uttarakhand's only jaggery ‘mandi’ stops operations, prices to soar

ROORKEE: The aroma of freshly-prepared jaggery no longer greets people visiting the Manglaur mandi, one of the biggest wholesale markets of jaggery in the country.
During its heydays, the traders at the market used to purchase 4,000 to 5,000 quintals of jaggery every day from the sugarcane farmers.
The operations at Manglaur market came to a grinding halt on Tuesday, almost 20 days after the Centre declared Rs 500 and 1,000 notes illegal.
The traders at the mandi, which is about 10 kms from Roorkee, have now decided to stop all their operations for an indefinite period due to the shortage of cash in hand.
Manglaur is Uttarakhand’s only jaggery market. It supplies a range of jaggery items to different parts of the country, including West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Sudhir Bansal, spokesperson of Vyapar Mandal Gud Mandi Manglaur (VMGMM), told TOI: “We were not able to pay our creditors, mainly farmers, workers, transporters as we had no cash. So, now, we have decided to close all the trading and business operations for an indefinite period beginning Tuesday. As soon as the banks are able to help us in withdrawing the money we will resume our business.”
There are around 35 traders in Manglaur mandi.
“We have to pay the cash to the farmers in advance for the jaggery. Later, we sell the purchased commodity further. Right now, we do not have cash to pay,” said Bansal.
Ram Karan Gupta, a trader at the mandi, said: “We also pay the transporters in cash as they take the product to different parts of the country. Also, daily wage labourers and workers are also paid in cash for their work. So, there is no work without the cash. And there is hardly any cash in the market.”