Srinagar, Aug 28: Surging prices of fruits and vegetables are hitting the common man badly in Srinagar city.
Consumers are blaming the authorities concerned for failing to check the market rates of vegetables and fruits leaving them to lurch at large.
The consumers said both local and non-local vegetables and fruits were being sold at prices much higher than the government fixed rates.
Shabir Ahmad, a Srinagar resident, said that shopkeepers who are selling vegetables have increased their rates and there are no checks on the price rise.
“From the past month, there has been an increase in the rates of fruits and vegetables. What would a poor buy when he cannot afford,” he said.
The consumer also said Kidney- Beans are being sold at 200 rupees per Kg. Cauliflower is being sold at 70 per kg. Similarly, Kashmiri Saag is sold at Rs 100 per kg and tomatoes at Rs 140 per kg. He also complained that the rates of fruits like Kashmiri apples, grapes, watermelon, muskmelon, mango and banana are high in markets.
Shamema, a consumer from Downtown Srinagar said, she went to buy some vegetables but the prices of vegetables are on the rise adding shopkeepers, and vendors have increased rates of their own will.
She also said that the prices of vegetables are even higher in the interiors of Srinagar. He said the vegetable has become unaffordable for people with limited resources to buy.
“Not just the healthy people, the fruits are also meant for most of the patients at homes or at hospitals, but given the high prices of fruits, the purchase has become very difficult for a common man,” said a group of aggrieved people in Srinagar.
People say that to afford fruits for an average family has become beyond reach and that the government announced fruit rates exist only in papers.
Questioning the high prices of fruits, Mohammad Aslam, a retired government official said, “In retail markets, oranges are sold at as high as Rs 300 per dozen, while pomegranates are sold a kilogram from Rs 150 to 250, bananas are sold at the rate of 100 per dozen, and the price of grapes ranges from 150 to 300 per kg.” Similarly, there are other fruits that are sold in the market at exorbitant rates, making it difficult for the common man to purchase.
“It is very difficult for me to buy a kilo of grapes or oranges as the price of the fruits is out of reach for me. It is not even easy to purchase other fruits easily as the prices are so high,” said Muzafar Ahmad.
“There is no enforcement of government rates as far as the sale of fruits is concerned in the retail market, a fruit seller makes no scope for any bargain, and says the fruit rates are higher from the Mandi,” he said.
Responding to the reports the officials of FCS&CA said that their teams are already checking the rates in the market. “There are already teams constituted across the valley who regularly check the market rates of fruits and other commodities, but since this is coming to our notice, we will intensify the market checking and those who will be found selling fruits or other commodities at high rates, action will follow against them,”
Add a comment
