Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market opens from today

KATHMANDU: The Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market in Kathmandu which was shut down since Monday has resumed its operations today.

The vegetable vendors had stopped selling the vegetables and fruits in the Kalimati vegetable market following a dispute which surfaced between the monitoring team and the vegetable traders on Tuesday morning.

According to vegetable seller Bishnu Kandel, the vegetable traders had manhandled the officials from the Department of Supplies Management, reached there for the market inspection amid widespread concerns over the inflation in the vegetable prices.

“Although the market has opened, the market is not bustling with customers and vendors in the past,” Kandel said, adding earlier around 500 tonnes of vegetables and fruits were brought to the market every day, only around 400 tonnes were brought from various parts of the country today.

The government has been stepping up of market monitoring on a regular basis. The monitoring team had reached Dhading, Chitwa, Makawanpur among others districts and taken stock of the prices the local farmers were paid for their produces and the market price.

During the inspection, it was found that the vegetable traders were charging consumers four times higher than the actual prices paid to the farmers.

Police had arrested Bharat Khatiwada, President of the Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Entrepreneurs, Nepal and Vegetable trader Bimal Dhungana for their involvement in the protest against the monitoring team.

The Market has opened after the vegetable protestors called off their protest on Tuesday.

Santosh Bista, Personal Secretary of Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Matrika Yadav said that the monitoring team could inspect any areas without prior information and action would be taken against those protesting such inspections.