Unavailability of potatoes and high price of capsicum disappoint customers

In a move to control the rising prices of vegetables, especially onions, the West Bengal government on Friday opened its first fair price shop at Kankurgachi-VIP market in the north-central part of the city. Although fair price shops had earlier been introduced in the State on a temporary basis, the State on Friday joined the likes of the Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments to start permanent shops selling vegetables at a subsidised rate.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had constituted a task force to look into the spiralling prices of vegetables and fix the prices for the fair price shops.

“The Chief Minister wanted to create a permanent solution in the wake of increasing prices of vegetables. After the task force’s meeting on June 23, we decided to set up 27 fair price vegetable shops spread across 46 municipality-owned markets in the city,” Rabindranath Koley, a member of the task force, said.

“We have tied up with farmers across the State in this initiative. The shops will be coming up in Salt Lake (Kolkata), Howrah, Barrackpore, Barasat, and other district towns,” Mr. Koley said. While the temporary shops had been set up by the State’s Horticulture Department, the permanent ones have been set up by the Agriculture Department.

The sole shop made brisk business during the day with the owner of the shop claiming to have sold majority of his stock of vegetables by 5.30 p.m.

Onions, whose prices shot up recently, were sold for Rs. 28 per kilo whereas elsewhere it was available for Rs. 35. Ginger is available for Rs. 14 per 100 gram while it is generally sold for Rs. 20 per 100 gram in the market. Customers were disappointed to see potatoes unavailable at the shop.

“There was no stock of potatoes today [Friday] which is why the shop could not stock up on the tubers. It should be available from tomorrow [Saturday],” Mr. Koley said.

However, while all other vegetables were selling at cheaper prices compared to other shops in the market, customers shied away from buying capsicum.

“The rate of capsicum is too high at the fair price shop. At other shops, capsicum is sold for Rs. 80 per kilo, but at the fair price shop, it is being sold for Rs. 100,” a customer said.

Asked how the task force planned to regulate the prices, Mr. Koley said, “Prices at the shop have been fixed with nominal profit margin. Prices are generally 20 per cent lower than the market rates. As for regulating prices, we have to rely on trust and keep a close eye on market prices to see if the vendors are selling at the rates fixed by us.”

Earlier, the State government had introduced fair price medicine shops.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Staff Reporter / Kolkata – June 28th, 2014