KARACHI, Jan 20: Wholesalers and traders of the New Fruit and Sabzi Mandi on the Super Highway are determined to go on indefinite strike from Jan 25 until the Sindh agriculture minister visits the wholesale market, holds a meeting with them and solves problems of the Market Committee.

This was said by a delegation of the Sabzi Mandi’s Joint Action Committee (JAC) to Sindh Secretary for Agriculture Subhago Khan Jatoi at a meeting on Tuesday.

The JAC members wanted to meet Sindh Agriculture Minister Syed Ali Nawaz Shah to “voice their problems and expose the corruption of the Market Committee in handling matters of the Sabzi Mandi and the committee’s siphoning off of millions of rupees in the name of development work.”

Besides, the JAC members also feared being killed or kidnapped in case they failed to comply with the demands of extortionists, land-grabbers, dacoits, etc inside and outside the market.

However, the agriculture minister, instead of meeting them, handed over the responsibility to the secretary for agriculture. The JAC members met the secretary and presented their charter of demands to him.

Giving details of the meeting, JAC member Haji Shahjehan confirmed to Dawn that the traders were prepared to shut down the wholesale market for an indefinite period.

He said first the agriculture secretary tried to be aggressive to the traders, but after sensing the mood of the traders the official cooled down. He added that the secretary assured the traders that he would visit the market on Friday morning, but the traders were more interested in a visit by the minister.

The traders were assured by the secretary about the formation of an 18-member market committee in the next 15 days with representation of growers and wholesalers. Besides, assurances were also given for the deployment of Rangers at the market.

Mr Shahjehan said the Mandi’s problems of sewerage, water, power and gas had been at the mercy of the administrator for over a decade. The market committee had collected millions of rupees but it had not spent the money on the market’s development, he alleged.

Rs240 million had been collected in market fees from the traders over the past eight years. Besides, the Zarai Taraqiati Bank had also provided Rs300 million for development work in the Mandi, but there were no records as to where the amount had been spent, he said.

In the charter of demands, the traders urged the agriculture ministry to reorganise the market committee and call for making its chairman from representatives of the Mandi. There is a need to collect market fees as per the relevant laws, but so far it was being collected illegally. They called for the audit of market committee fees collected in the last eight years.

The JAC urged the law enforcement agencies and the Sindh government to provide protection against criminals to visitors from the city and the up-country. Rangers should be given full authority for ensuring security of the entire Mandi. There is also need for providing two police mobiles for patrolling the area from the police checkpoint besides increasing the number of policemen.

The JAC has also demanded 24-hour patrolling by police from Sohrab Goth to the Mandi.

JAC member Abdul Khaliq Yousuf said the agriculture minister had involved Abdul Hakim Baloch, a former MPA and chairman the market committee, in holding talks with traders and asked him to persuade them to withdraw the indefinite strike plan. The traders met Mr Baloch but they refused to call off the planned strike till the problems were resolved.

He said a year back the agriculture secretary had promised in writing that he would help solve the problems of the Mandi and traders, but the problems persisted. He added that the traders were also trying to meet Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza but he apparently had no time to listen to complaints against rising criminal activities.