Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde today said that the State government is with the farmers on the onion issue.

Speaking to media persons, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated the State government has requested the Union Agriculture and Commerce Ministries to increase the number of procurement centres. He said, that procurement is being done at 13 centres set up by NAFED currently adding that 500 metric tonne of onion had been procured so far.

The Centre had recently announced it would purchase two lakh metric tonnes of onions at 2,410 rupees per quintal and had set up special procurement centres in Nashik and Ahmednagar.

Auctions in the APMCs in Nashik, including in Lasalgaon were affected on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and farmers have been protesting over the imposition of a 40 per cent duty on the export of onions.