Bengaluru, Apr 17 (IANS): Coming to the rescue of thousands of farmers reeling under lockdown woes, the Karnataka government is setting up about 60 centres across the capital to enable them sell vegetables and fruits, an official said on Thursday.

"Though lockdown has been extended to May 3, there is no restriction on agricultural activities, including harvesting, transporting and marketing grains, fruits and vegetables across the state," the official told IANS here.

As farmers and other growers are facing difficulty to transport perishable vegetables and fruits to the city due to logistic constraints, the state government has advised traders to buy their produce or allow them to directly sell to customers in their wholesale market.

"With the help of local legislators in all the 28 assembly segments across the city, 2-3 centres are being set up in each constituency where traders or growers can directly sell vegetables and fruits, as there is no bar on essential commodities," the official said.

State Revenue Minister R. Ashok and five other ministers who are lawmakers from the city, have agreed to make arrangements for transporting vegetables and fruits from surrounding areas and the neighbouring districts to the centres in their assembly segments.

"With the summer peaking, fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits perish faster, resulting in huge loss for their growers. In the absence of cold storage chains, the centres will help them to sell their produce daily as there is no dearth of demand in a city like Bengaluru with 110-lakh population and buying power," the official said.

Thousands of farmers and growers suffered huge losses since March 25 when the first phase of lockdown was suddenly enforced with public and private transport services suspended as they could not get labour for harvesting, vehicles to transport their produce to towns and cities and traders to buy them for cash.

"As the KR Market in the city centre, the agriculture producers marketing committee (APMC) yards and wholesale markets on the city's outskirts have been shut down to prevent crowding, the centres will be able to sell vegetables, fruits and even flowers under police watch to maintain physical or social distancing," added the official.