Onion moving away from common man’s reach

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Sept 19: Soaring prices of onions and vegetables have begun to hit the pocket of common man. A visit to vegetable and fruit mandis shows that the rates of vegetables have witnessed a sharp rise and is likely to increase in coming days.

In absence of any mechanism to keep check on the prices and failure of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) department to effectively deal with rates fixed illegally by retailers, people are at mercy of vendors, who charge at will. Further vegetable and fruit prices vary from one market to another, which is leading to verbal duel

Having a glance over the current prices of the vegetables in the city, the price of onions is reached upto Rs 70 per kilograms whereas potato is Rs 20 to 25 per kg, ladyfinger which is mostly liked by the people has increased from Rs 20 to 30 per kg, lemon that refreshes everyone have got up from Rs 40 to 50 per kg, tomato a regular item in our lunch and dinner has increased to Rs 40 per kg.

Harbhajan Singh a vegetable seller said that my daily sale has tremendously decreased, people prefer buying lesser quantity of vegetables, than they used to buy earlier or shifting to commodities having low rates.

Several times people also staged protest demonstration against the state government at different locations of the city, whereas the administration is not taking any heed to their grievances.

Similar is the condition of other commodities that a common man has to think many times before buying.

Sheela Devi a housewife, said that the price that the vegetable sellers charge from a common man is very expensive, people has to alter the items in their lunch and dinner.

Besides the rising of the rates in the vegetables, they are made artificially healthy by injecting chemicals to gain maximum output at the cost of health of people.

This unhealthy way of life is damaging the immune system of the people. Due to this many cases have been registered as a result of the intake of chemically injected vegetables.

Meenakshi Sharma, who is working in a private company, said that there is very little impact on the budget of the rich but the middle class is affected the most. We have to alter the items in our food thali day by day.

She requested the government to control the price rise adding that even the fruits have vanished from our diet, now the health of our families is only in the hands of the government which only can regulate the price rise.