The Madras High Court on Monday directed Koyambedu Wholesale Market Managing Committee to allot one out of a three-acre vacant land for exclusive use of licensed tomato traders.
It said such an exercise could be undertaken on an experimental basis for four weeks to find out if it helped in bringing down the price of tomatoes in open market.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by Thanthai Periyar Tomato Traders Association which sought direction to the managing committee to permit the tomato traders to use an 84-cent open ground, available in front of N-124 godown inside the market complex, for loading and unloading tomatoes.
The association said the price of tomatoes had risen to over ₹140 a kg a few days ago and that it could be brought under control if the traders were allowed to use the open ground for parking trucks that brought tomatoes from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
However, the managing committee told the court that the use of the open ground had nothing to do with the price of tomatoes.
The prices had increased solely because of difficulties in procurement and transportation due to incessant rain in the last few days.
Daily arrivals
Stating that the prices had begun to cool down and that tomatoes were available now for ₹40 a kg, the committee said that 75 to 105 truck loads of tomatoes arrived at the Koyambedu wholesale market every day and there was enough space to accommodate all of them.
During heavy rain, the number of truckloads had reduced to around 40.
The committee said the procurement price of Grade I tomatoes had gone up to ₹96.43 kg in the Koyambedu market on November 24 and they were sold for ₹100 a kg on that day.
However, the same Grade I tomatoes were procured for ₹39.29 and sold for ₹42.86 on November 27.
Further stating that the open ground referred to by the tomato traders was only 24 cents and not 84 cents as claimed by them, M. Velmurugan, counsel for the committee, said the market complex otherwise had enough space to park around 800 trucks.
He referred to availability of around three acres near Gate number 14.
