Mobile vegetable shops have started functioning in different parts of the State to lessen the hardship of people in the light of the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being run by Tamil Nadu Horticulture Development Agency (TANHODA) through 180 vehicles since Friday, the mobile shops are meant mostly for parts of the State other than Chennai. Among the vegetables being sold are tomato, chilli, small-sized onion, cabbage and gourd, apart from fruits such as water melon and banana. Nearly 1,900 tonnes were, so far, transported from fields of farmers to the points of sale. As for the reason not to run shops in Chennai, a senior official of the Agency, an arm of the Horticulture and Plantation Crops department as part of the State Agriculture department, is of the view that the city is being served by the Koyambedu market and farm fresh consumer outlets of the Cooperation department.
Yet, for the purpose of demonstration, the TANHODA is running retail outlets in Aminjikarai near Anna arch; Semmozhi Poonga on Cathedral Road; Madhavaram (near the entrance of botanical gardens) Thiruvanmiyur, near Marundeeswarar temple.
Pointing out that the Agency’s retail outlets in other districts too are also selling vegetables, the official says that the dissemination of information regarding the mobile vegetable shop services is being done through District Collectors.
