Elections 2019: Bihar’s Biggest Grain Market Has no Toilet or Drinking Water

Gulab Bagh (Purnea/Bihar): The biggest grain market in Bihar is without basic facilities, such as drinking water, toilet or a place to meet and relax after hours of hectic marketing. That’s not all. The market is surrounded by water-logging, filth and dirt, which speaks volumes about government apathy and neglect for years. This is despite the fact that the government gets an annual revenue of over Rs 200 crore from the grain market.

Ironically, the grain market is located Gulab Bagh (Rose Garden), a name that runs contrary to the picture on the ground. The market, which is the lifeline for thousands of farmers, traders and middlemen, is neither clean nor has modern infrastructure, but is still not an issue in the ongoing campaign for the Purnea Lok Sabha constituency.

Situated close to Purnea town, a bustling urban pocket of flood-prone Seemanchal region of the state, the Gulab Bagh Mandi, as it is locally known, is visited by hundreds of farmers and traders every day. This number jumps multi-fold on Tuesdays and Fridays, the day of the “haat” (market), when common buyers from neighbouring districts and far-away places like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, and even neighbouring countries, such as Nepal and Bangladesh throng it, Bablu Choudhary, a trader, said.

Bhagwan Mandal

Bhagwan Mandal, a truck driver, said the market’s condition has worsened in the past two decades. “I am a regular in this mandi but the situation has not improved despite growing business. I have visited grain markets in Punjab, Haryana and other states, but Gulab Bagh is the worst as far as infrastructure and management are concerned”.

Mandal said there was no problem for farmers to arrive with their grains in heavy vehicles or for traders to take away huge quantities of grains purchased at Gulab Bagh as it is located near the confluence of NH 31 and NH 57. ”But they face real problems inside this grain market”, he added.

A wholesale shopkeeper of jute bags and local brooms, Amit Kumar Shah, said “Even in the summer season, waterlogging and muddy roads create problems. From July to November, Gulab Bagh, spread in nearly 68 acres, is fully waterlogged”.

Sushil Kumar, a businessman, said Gulab Bagh was one of the largest wholesale grains markets specialising in buying and selling rice, wheat, maize, turmeric, jute, pulses and other grains, but ”it is unfortunate that all of us have been forced to do their business in such a hellish conditions. We have been raising this issue before the administration, the local MP and MLA but in vain. They forget everything after the elections”.

The traders blamed successive governments for neglecting the market and not developing modern infrastructure. ”There is no sanitation and no drains. It is shocking reality at a time when crores of rupees are being spent by the Narendra Modi government on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan for clean roads to business centres and residential localities. We are helpless and frustrated”.

Manohar Agrawal, a businessman, said he was fed up with assurances by local leaders on changing the face of Gulab Bagh, a big name associated with Purnea.”In the last few years, Gulab Bagh’s popularity reached the international market after it emerged as the largest maize hub in India”.

According to Kundan Poddar, a businessman, this grain market, with a trading history of 150 years and annual transactions of more than Rs 2,000 crore, has neglected beyond imagination. “Promises and announcements to develop it, remains on paper”, he added.

About eight years ago, a project of Rs 17 crore was sanctioned to develop it and construct basic modern infrastructure for marketing yard, but it is still pending. The market caters to farmers of Seemanchal comprising Kishanganj,  Purnea, Araria, Katihar, Bhagalpur and adjoining districts.

Akhtar Hussain, a farmer from Araria, arrived at the grain market to sell a tractor load of wheat. ”I have come with 45 quintal wheat, and am likely to get rate of Rs 1,650 per quintal, which is a good price for a farmer like me. After all, it is a big business hub”, he said.

Sunil Kumar Kesri, a wholesaler of corn said several national and international brands visit Gulab Bagh for corn as well as jute. With the entire Seemanchal region known for producing maize, thousands of farmers sell it here to us and well-known brands including MNCs purchased corn from here as it is cheap, of good quality and easily available. “Maize or corn also goes from here to Nepal and Bangladesh”, he said.

At Gulab Bagh, there are more than 25 purchasing centres of MNCs, including Horlicks, Britannia, Hindustan Lever, Nestle. These companies purchased over 1,5 lakh tonnes of maize. Sources in the market said big names like Cargill Inc, Glencore International AG have been trading from here.

During maize or corn season, daily arrivals in the market is more than 5,000 tonnes a day. As per a security guard at the main gate, on an average nearly 1,000 trucks, 2,000 tractors and 3,000 small vehicles daily.

In Gulab Bagh Mandi, 450 traders are registered and doing business, and have their warehouses, too. Besides, hundreds of traders without proper registration are doing business from here too.