Trade at new vegetable, fruit market starts Saturday

Traders agree to relocating from city centre to Hala Naka

HYDRABAD:

After years-long controversy between the traders of vegetables and fruits and the district administration of Hyderabad over the shifting the trade from the old to the new vegetable market, the traders have eventually relented.

A notification issued by the Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro reads: "the market is being shifted from Hali Road, Hyderabad, to newly established fruit and vegetable market in Hala Naka from Saturday, June 26, voluntarily, amicably and peacefully."

The Sindh High Court in its May 18 verdict passed on the petition of the traders had ordered that the key operations of the market should be shifted to the new place. "The principal operations of the Mandi [market] would commence in the new Sabzi Mandi [vegetable market] including the auction proceedings." The court had, however, allowed some traders, including the petitioners, to continue the trade in the old market and barred the authorities from taking any coercive action.

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The Hyderabad Onion, Potato and Vegetable Commission Agent Group also submitted an undertaking on June 21, stating that they were voluntarily willing to shift to the new place. They stated that all the vegetables will be put to auction at the new market from June 26.

The DC requested SSP Hyderabad Abdul Salam Shaikh to provide adequate security at the new market, which is in the city's outskirts along the Akram canal. The Market Committee, a subordinate wing functioning under the Sindh Agriculture Department, has also been directed to facilitate the traders.

The Market Committee acquired land for the new market from 1982 to 1983. The bookings of the properties began in 1996. But inordinate delays in the project completion, multiple allotments and distance from the settled areas have so far taken two and a half decades for the market to become functional. Phase-I of the new market consists of 502 shops and the phase-II includes 1,675 shops besides seven auction platforms. Whereas the old Sabzi Mandi has a total of 435 shops and lacks the auction platform.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2021.