City gets 14 more mobile vegetable shops

Inaugurating 14 new mobile vegetable shops, the Minister said that the state was already operating 305 mobile units and have made sales of 2,380 metric tonnes of vegetables during the lockdown period. Each mobile shop will visit 10 to 15 localities per day and 400 locations are visited per day. Through the new units,160 more locations will be covered, particularly in the north and central Chennai where there are reports of vegetable shortage, the Minister said.

Based on media reports stating that the vegetable prices have shot up, the department has extended the mobile shop network and our field officials are also visiting the Thirumazhisai vegetable market to bring down the price.

Each shop will have a price display board and it will be cheaper and good when compared with other retail vendors. Particularly the cost of tomatoes, onion, carrot and beans will be cheap in the state-run outlets, the Minister explained.

The cooperative department is directly procuring the vegetables from Krishnagiri and adjoining places and there are no middlemen involved in this procurement.

The cooperatives department had so far made sales of Rs 6.36 crore worth vegetables and groceries worth Rs 12.29 crore, Raju added.

According to cooperatives department sources, the cost of carrot, beans, onion, yam and tomatoes will be cheaper by 20 to 25 per cent. Thirty types of vegetables are procured daily and the prices will be frequently revised. There is a good response for the state-run shops and a team of officers are also examining to check whether the sale of vegetables will be a success if sold through ration shops, sources said.