HYDERABAD: Administration officials did not allow vegetable-laden vehicles to enter old Sabzi Mandi off the Hali Road and diverted them to the site of new Sabzi mandi off the lined channel here on Tuesday.

The vehicles carrying onion and other vegetables were halted at Fateh Chowk by police and diverted to the new mandi.

Latifabad Assistant Commissioner (AC) Faraz Siddiqui told Dawn on Tuesday that the mandi’s vegetable representatives had been told that the auction of onion, tomato and potato would not be allowed inside the old Sabzi mandi. Their auction would now be held in the new mandi while other green items like chillies, coriander and mint could be sold and auctioned in the old Sabzi mandi.

Vegetables started reaching to the new mandi site in the second half of the day. The officials have already told fruit sellers that 100 per cent of their business would be shifted to the new Sabzi mandi and they would not be allowed to work at the existing mandi.

According to Altaf Memon, who is representing vegetable sellers, the administration had prevented the vehicles carrying vegetables from entering the old Sabzi mandi.

The AC communicated his decision to him mentioning that the auction of onion, potato and tomato would not take place in the old mandi, he said. “But I didn’t agree with it because only one group of vegetable sellers was present in the mandi and the other group was absent,” he said. He said that mint, coriander and chillies would be sold from the old mandi after auction. The space that was in use for vegetable auction had been vacated, he added.

The Hyderabad administration is shifting the old mandi to its new site in line with the directives of the Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission headed by retired justice Amir Hani Muslim. Fruit and vegetable sellers had resisted the decision on the ground that infrastructure in the new Sabzi mandi is not complete and needed many basic amenities. But the administration rejected their claim.

The traders also claim that there were serious anomalies in the allotment of plots of the mandi as multiple claims were there on one plot.

The traders had moved the Sindh High Court Hyderabad circuit bench against imposition of Section 144 CrPC by the civil administration and the court had issued a restraining order on Jan 30, allowing traders to work in the old mandi. But following the situation evolving in the backdrop of coronavirus, the administration filed an application before the court on March 19, praying the court to modify its restraining order.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2020