Visakhapatnam: With state government intervening into the market, tomatoes will be available to consumers in Visakhapatnam for just ₹50 a kg at Rythu Bazaars in MVP Colony, Sitammadhara and Gopalapatnam to start with.
Customers will, however, have to carry their Aadhaar or ration card. Each customer will be given only 1 kg of tomatoes.
Government has introduced the market intervention scheme after tomatoes touched ₹100 a kg during the last 10 days in the open market. Rythu Bazaars had though been selling tomatoes for ₹70 a kg, giving some relief to customers. In areas where there are no Rythu Bazaars, prices even touched ₹110 to ₹120 a kg.
With prices expected to rise further, government has decided to intervene and buy tomatoes from the wholesale markets. It would then sell them for only ₹50 a kg in Visakhapatnam.
MVP Colony Rythu Bazaar is the biggest in Andhra Pradesh. On a day, it generally sells 100 quintals of tomatoes. On June 27, this bazaar received only 40 quintals of tomatoes. Agricultural Marketing Department then sent 12 quintals more tomatoes. There were long queues to purchase these tomatoes at ₹70. The department is now expecting longer queues, now that the tomatoes will be sold for ₹50.
