Devangere: Tomatoes are being distributed free in different parts of the city after a glut forced down prices to rock-bottom levels.

Till recently, tomatoes were being dumped into open drains by the district administration as there were no takers at the prices the administration had fixed.

After tomato prices touched new levels causing huge losses to farmers, the state  government announced a minimum support price and asked the Horticulture Department to purchase them and sell them to people. The department bought huge quantities, but was not able to sell them as people showed no interest even at low prices.

With no other alternative, the officials decided to throw the tomatoes into open drains as the district has no cold storages to store tomatoes. Express had published a report on this last week.

Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who came to know about this, advised the officials not to throw the tomatoes into drains.

Instead he told them to give away the tomatoes free to people, students’ hostels, orphanages, children’s homes, destitute centres etc.

The district administration has started taking tractors laden with tomato boxes and distributing them free to the public in different wards from Wednesday.

Some of these areas are Devaraj Urs Extension, Azad Nagar, Nittuvalli, Vinoba Nagar, K T J Nagar, Saraswathi Nagar, Sriram Nagar and Yellamma Nagar.

“We were paying Rs 60 to 80 for one kg tomato a few months ago. This time the farmers had a bumper crop and prices hit rock bottom. Now, we are getting tomatoes free of cost at our door step,” Saraswathi, a housewife at Vinoba Nagar, said.

The district administration has so far purchased 2,000 tonnes, and the free distribution would continue till stocks last, sources said.

Deputy Tahsildar Prabhuswamy, revenue personnel Ravi, Srinivas, Basavaraj and Aruna took part in the free distribution.