The Maharashtra government announced a new scheme today, to ensure consumers in Mumbai get vegetables, at almost 30 per cent cheaper rates.
"The state marketing federation has taken the initiative to start around 10 vegetable selling centres in Mumbai next week and their number would rise to about 100 later," Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil told reporters here.
Retail vegetable sellers fleece consumers on the pretext of decline in vegetable production due to drought, the minister said, adding that the new scheme would help consumers get vegetables at much cheaper rates.
These centres would be run on a "no-profit no-loss" basis, he said.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had expressed concern over the steep rise in vegetable prices, the minister said.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had recently asked the Maharashtra government to implement the Central scheme of encouraging vegetable farming within 50 km radius of cities and towns with a 10 lakh population.
