HYDERABAD: The district administration has decided to shift the old Sabzi Mandi, located off Hali Road, to its new location near Lined Channel, on the outskirts of the city, in compliance of the relevant orders of the Sindh High Court. It has also sought home department’s permission for the imposition of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in order to maintain law and order during the shifting process.

The old Sabzi Mandi site is located within the city and has become a nuisance for the people living in its surroundings.

The trade, transport and other activities at the site cause pollution and pathetic civic conditions while chaotic vehicular traffic and encroachments add to the miseries of shoppers, visitors and other people. The Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) has failed to maintain cleanliness within and outside the old mandi.

The administration intends to get all trade activities at the old Sabzi Mandi stopped and deal with defiant traders as per the law. It fears defiance by those traders whose issues, mainly the one pertaining to multiple allotment of plots in the new Sabzi Mandi, have remained unresolved.

On Thursday, Hyderabad Comm­is­sioner Mohammad Abbas Baloch chaired a meeting with traders to discuss the shifting of the Sabzi Mandi to its new site. He told the participants that the shifting would be done at all costs as this would help lessen congestion and pollution in the city.

The new Subzi Mandi covering an area of 70 acres was planned in 1996. Some spadework had been done and necessary facilities had also been arranged but due to some issues the shifting of businesses could not take place. The infrastructure-related issues at the new site remained pending since then.

Under the approved layout plan of phase-1, 269 plots have been earmarked for fruit traders and 234 for vegetable traders. The phase-I stretches over an area of 26 acres. The issue of disputed files also pertains to the phase-I site.

In phase-II, in all 1,914 plots have been demarcated for allotment to different categories of growers, new vegetable/fruit traders and brokers, besides for cold storages.

The multiple allotments issue involves 104 cases and unless these cases are settled, the traders concerned could not be shifted from the old site to the new one.

Commissioner Baloch told the meeting that those embroiled in such cases would not be forced to move their businesses to the new site until their cases were settled through court or the market committee.

Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain, Dep­uty Commissioner Ayesha Abro and market committee admin­is­trator Shoukat Mastoi also talked to traders’ representatives, including Najmuddin Qureshi, Zah­eer Jan, Waseem Jee, Altaf Memon, Haji Ikhtiyar and others.

The commissioner has formed two committees each having two fruit and vegetable sellers and representatives of the civil administration as well as the market committee administrator. The comm­ittees were told to submit their report/recommendations by Thursday (Jan 9) after which it would be sent to the agriculture secretary for approval.

He told the traders that mobile bank facility would provided to them till a bank branch was established there with the permission of the State Bank. He also promised one-window operation for layout plan approval and provision of electricity and water connections.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2020