Bhubaneswar: Geeta, a domestic help from Bhubaneswar is perplexed. One of the families she works for got back from shopping and told her that they got onions for Rs 100. It’s Geeta’s turn to worry now.
‘If onions and vegetables come at such high rates, then how will people like us afford them regularly? A cabbage comes for Rs 60 now. On most of the days, I prepare a curry just once a day. Shops close to my place get vegetables from the markets and sell them at a higher price. I don’t have time to go to the haat, so I buy from them. I also have to spend Rs 30 to travel back and forth from the market, so it doesn’t really make a difference,” said Geeta, who stays in CBI colony. She is now waiting to buy onions from fair price shops in the beginning of next month. Earlier this month, the state government had announced to supply onions through the public distribution systems to make sure consumers get onions at “proper prices”.
True to her words, some of the vendors at nearby Nayapally were selling onions for Rs 100/kilogram. At Maa Kochilei Market in Rasulgarh, for instance, the prices of onions are between Rs 80- Rs 90 since yesterday. And there are no signs of vegetable prices coming down. At some places, beans and bitter gourd are being sold for as high as Rs 80/ kilogram. Cost of tomatoes, brinjals and cucumbers have risen by an average of Rs 20 from October. They are being sold for Rs 60/kilogram now at many markets.
Kartik and his friend from Berhampur work as daily wage labourers in Bhubaneswar. They are also feeling the pinch as food prices rise across the city.
“We hop from shop to shop in the hope of finding vegetables at reduced rates. The prices are exorbitant, but we don’t have a choice. It’s difficult. In the villages you can make do by sourcing some vegetables from the farm or garden, but no such options are available in the cities. We’ve reduced our consumption of vegetables. If we were using two onions before, now we are using one,” said Kartik. Both of them earn about Rs 400-550 on a daily basis.
Vendors have no idea when the prices will come down. “The reduced quantity of onions in the warehouses is the major problem. We are not sure for how long the prices will remain this high,” said one of the sellers at Maa Kochilei Market.
Nivedita Nayak