Three Reliance Fresh outlets were attacked by more than 300 middlemen engaged in buying and selling vegetables here this morning. Thirteen people were arrested in this connection.

The pre-noon attacks were preceded by a road blockade. The middlemen also gheraoed district officials including the Ranchi Deputy Commissioner on May 8 to demand closure of the outlets.

Reliance Fresh, which sources vegetables sold at its outlets directly from farmers, has virtually eliminated the middleman from the retail chain. This has kept prices low and plans are afoot to open 100 such shops in Jharkhand alone. The four shops which have opened here in the last two months employ more than 500 people.

But the vegetable sellers are far from happy. "We are being strangled by the capitalists," claimed Sudhir Kumar, one of the protesters. "After Reliance began to pay the farmers more, we also now have to pay more. But our sales have dipped as customers are being lured by air-conditioned shops," he added.

Speaking from the police lock-up, Suniti Minz, a vegetable seller at Kutchery market said: "We are going to starve if these big shops are not shut down." Kumar and Minz are among 2,000 middlemen who have united under the umbrella of the Ranchi Vegetables Sellers Association to press for their demand.

RVSA is reportedly being backed by a number of traders and small-time politicians.