The Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board (KFVMDB) has cancelled the licences of six traders operating stalls at the country’s largest farm products market.

Following reports of rampant unfair business practices, the KFVMDB launched a probe of 98 stall owners at the market. The six traders failed to submit satisfactory explanations, and their permits were withdrawn.

Two vegetable dealers, Mohammad Junaid and Israfil Kawari, and four retailers, Purushottam Rai, Parbati Shrestha, Ram Bahadur Khadka and Bishnu Kumar Basnet, lost their licences following a board decision of the KFVMDB on Tuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development said.  

The KFVMDB has begun a study of the explanations submitted by the other 92 traders. It said in a statement that it had formed a five-member task force to examine the documents. The task force includes representatives of the ministry, farmers’ commission, KFVMDB, traders and farmers. It will submit a report this week and the KFVMDB will decide what further action to take, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, a separate team formed by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to probe unfair business practices at the Kalimati vegetable market said that prices had been pushed up sharply due to the existence of a syndicate. The panel urged the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies to enforce a billing system to prevent consumers from being overcharged.

The ministry formed the committee two weeks ago in a bid to prevent arbitrary price hikes and stop consumers from being cheated. The government launched a crackdown after members of an official monitoring team were manhandled by angry vegetable traders for probing their business transactions.

Joint secretary at the ministry Navaraj Dhakal, who heads the study team, said the ministry would immediately implement the recommendations of the taskforce. “To this end, we have started dispatching official letters to the government agencies concerned,” Dhakal said. The study report showed that illegal traders were occupying the stalls at the Kalimati market. It said that the existence of middlemen, limited testing of farm products for harmful pesticides and poor access of farmers to major markets were among the problems in the farm product business.