KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah, taking serious note of sky-rocketing prices of tomatoes, onions and other vegetables, has directed agriculture department to intervene into the market by reducing the role of middlemen and control the prices.
In a statement issued from CM House on Wednesday, the chief minister said that the price of tomatoes had risen to Rs250 per kg which was beyond the approach of poor people. “I feel it is an artificial price hike created by hoarders,” he said. The chief minister also directed Sindh Agriculture and Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal to personally enquire into the matter and intervene in the vegetable market where middlemen had played havoc with the prices and were minting money.
He said that Thatta and Sujawal districts produced early tomato crops, therefore, necessary arrangements should be made to bring tomatoes of these areas to the market of Karachi. “It seems as if the middlemen have also purchased the tomato crop in Thatta and Sujawal districts but this must be stopped,” he said and also urged the agriculture department to take necessary measures to regulate the price of others vegetables which were the only source of food for the poor people.
He issued the directives that the commissioners, deputy commissioners, and market committees must play their roles to control the price hike, and ordered the arrest of hoarders and those who had created such situation.
Separately, while presiding over a meeting on BRT Blue Line here at the CM House on Wednesday, the chief minister has also directed the transport department to conduct an environmental assessment of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Blue Line so that the project could be started through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
The meeting was attended by Sindh Transport Minister Syed Nasir Shah, Planning and Development (P&D) Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, Transport Secretary Saeed Awan, Mass Transit DG Mohammad Athar and various others.
According to reports, the BRT was initially planned to be about 48-kilometer-long and had been aligned from Gurumandir to Bahria Town via Teen Hatti, Liquatabad No 10, Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Sohrab Goth and M-9 and additionally connecting Jinnah International Airport via MM Alam Road to Bahria Town. According to the plan, the BRT Blue Line would share the route with BRT Green Line from Gurumandir to Merewether Clock Tower.
