Around 1,600 wholesale vegetable and fruit mandis have begun working smoothly while 300 others will operate from today after the government on 26th March 2020 stepped in to normalise the supply during nationwide lockdown.
In order to ensure that the supply of essential fruits and vegetables is not hit during the lockdown period, the Union agriculture ministry is in constant touch with the state governments' head of agriculture marketing and Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) or wholesale mandi boards.
A senior official from the agriculture ministry told PTI that "There were initial resistance but we have convinced state governments & APMC to keep the mandis open. As a result, 1600 vegetables and fruits mandis have started working smoothly from Thursday and 300 more will open on Friday".
The official said there are around 6,900 wholesale mandis that includes grains, vegetables and fruits across the country. The grain mandis are open during the time of harvest. But at present, the focus is on vegetable & fruit mandis.
Moreover, to normalise supply in important cities, the government has asked Mother Dairy’s Safal vegetable outlets in Delhi, Hopcoms retail outlets in Bengaluru, Sufal Bangla retail outlets in Kolkata and similar outlets in Mumbai and Chennai to check movement of supplies and coordinate with the local administration.
Regarding inter-state movement of vegetables, the official told traders are facing problems on the ground because police is enforcing strictly the lockdown rules.
But, mandis have been told to set up a control room to intervene & coordinate with local police as well as district collector and transport association to resolve the matter.
In addition, mandis have put in place a system to maintain social distancing & encouraging traders to wear face masks and use hand sanitisers to combat COVID-19. The official added that even mandi premise is being disinfected on regular basis.
