After the outbreak of coronavirus followed by the lockdown, it has become very difficult for the authorities to maintain the rules of social distancing especially in the vegetable markets. In view of the situation, District Collector Ravindra Thakre has issued an order to prevent overcrowding at Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard at Kalamna, and the functioning of various sub-markets with immediate effect.
As per the notification, now fruit and grains market would function three days in the week while onion and potato would get three days whereas chilly market is allotted one day for trading. The administration is facing difficulty in ensuring that visitors to sprawling yard at APMC maintain physical distance to avoid transmission of coronavirus. Despite repeated appeals the traders, citizens are not responding to the guidelines properly.
Finally after wider consultation the administrative machinery decided to segregate functioning of various traders so that at least the footfalls at APMC could be limited and norm of physical distancing could be properly enforced.
As per the decision now fruit and grains market would function for three days-Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday while potato and onion traders are allotted Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. The chilly market would function only on Monday. Earlier, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had granted permission for bulk selling of vegetables at 23 places in a bid to decongest Cotton Market. However the one week experiment failed to work as overcrowding continued rampantly at six places forcing civic body to suspend trading at these places. This led to crowds again surged at Kalamna Market yard forcing district administration to step in and regulate the functioning.
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