A vegetable market in Sambalpur

Sambalpur, Aug. 11: Prices of vegetables continue to soar here despite initiatives of the municipality.

The civic body had recently convened a meeting of vegetable wholesalers and asked them to sell vegetables with marginal profit so that the people did not suffer. But, the initiative has to yield desired results. Prices of vegetables continue to upset many households’ budgets.

Vice-chairperson of the Sambalpur Municipality Siddharth Saha admitted that the initiative of the civic body had failed to yield any result. He said: “The wholesalers had agreed to sell the vegetables with a marginal profit in the meeting. But none of them have complied with the agreement. The municipality staff should have checked whether they were selling vegetables at proper prices, but the staff, too, had not evinced any seriousness on the issue.”

However, he assured that he would discuss the issue with officials of the Sambalpur Municipality again.

“We will convene another meeting of the vegetable wholesalers,” said Saha, while urging the district administration to intervene in the matter.

“Owing to the rise in the prices of seasonal and commonly-used vegetables, people are now forced to cut down on buying vegetables,” said Narmada Pattnaik, a homemaker.

Commonly-used vegetables are being sold at exorbitant prices. Tomato is priced at Rs 40 per kilogram. Similarly, while cauliflower is being sold at Rs 60 per kilogram, cabbage is priced at Rs 30 per Kilogram. Brinjal and spine gourd are being sold at Rs 40 and Rs 80 per kilogram respectively. Even onion prices have soared to Rs 50 a kilogram.

A vegetable seller, who did not reveal his name, said: “We bring the vegetable from the wholesalers and sell it to the consumers with a marginal profit. If the wholesalers sell the vegetable to us at a low price, we will sell those to the consumer at a lower price.”

“As things stand now, members of a lower middle class family have no option but to cut down on vegetables now. We hoped that the situation would change after the intervention of the municipality. But it did not,” said Dinesh Hota, a local resident.

“Last year, the municipality had intervened to control the soaring prices of vegetables and put a price chart mentioning the retail prices of vegetables at the Golebazar vegetable market. This initiative had succeeded in bringing down the prices of vegetables. The municipality should put price charts in the major markets of the city again,” said Hota.

A vegetable wholesaler, Gopal Gupta, however, said: “Vegetable production has decreased in the local area now. Incessant rainfall has also affected production of vegetable in some areas. Moreover, instead of vegetable production, farmers are also engaged in paddy farming. The low production of vegetable is one of the major reasons behind the rise in the prices. The prices of vegetables are expected to come down during October.”