Srinagar, Aug 10: The cost of food platters has increased for the average person in Kashmir owing to the skyrocketing prices of vegetables, which is making it more difficult for them to manage their daily expenses.
Due to Kashmir’s agri-climatic circumstances, there are usually plenty of veggies available; but, this time, the costs have increased so much that chicken is now more affordable than green vegetables.
While the soaring costs are showing no signs of going down, this has particularly hurt the poor who are finding it difficult to feed themselves. The authorities are also remaining silent and allowing the vegetable vendors to charge whatever rates they choose.
Vegetable costs, according to locals, have risen above their means of purchase. In the retail market of Jammu, tomatoes, which are required to prepare all vegetables and pulses (dals), are offered for Rs 150–180 per kg, beans for Rs 80, and gourds for Rs 70. They claimed that since the monsoon arrived, vegetable prices had increased by a factor of two to three.
In Batmallo Market, Javid Ahmad, who had come to buy some veggies, remarked, “Every vegetable vendor has established its own pricing. Tomatoes are being sold by some for Rs 170 and by others for Rs 100. Since there is no oversight, store owners are free to plunder the people. He urged the LG Administration to set up committees to monitor the market and rein in the soaring cost of veggies.
“Vegetable costs are currently setting new records, and fruit prices were previously out of reach for the poor. No vegetable is available for less than Rs 100 per kilogramme. The gourd that physicians advise their patients to eat is likewise out of the price range of the general populace. Even the cost of potatoes and onions has increased, according to Irshad Ahmad, a private-sector employee. “The incessant rainfall for the past few weeks in other parts of North India has damaged the vegetable crops. This is not anything new, prices of vegetables soar in Monsoon season every year but this time unseasonal rains and hailstorms in the month of June severely affected the local production of various vegetables, squeezing the supply chain,” said Bashir Ahmad Bashir, president of Parimpora Mandi.
