Soaring vegetable prices have become a major concern for people, who are already reeling under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The prices have almost doubled and wholesale traders from agartala anticipate that it will touch an all-time high in the next 10 days as festive season is ahead. Even as nutritionists and doctors are stressing on nutritious food, people are minimizing their spending on vegetables because of the exorbitant price. Potatoes, which were Rs 30per kg in September first week, have now reached Rs50-60 per kg. Similarly, the cost of tomatoes, brinjal, and other vegetables have touched an all-time high of Rs 60-80 per kg in the retail market. The prices of onion, green peas and potato have witnessed a surge of about 35-50% in the retail market. Besides, the prices of capsicum, ginger, green chilli and coriander too have started burning holes in the pocket of consumers. The lockdown days were far better than now as 7 kgs of onions were sold for Rs 100 until July. Now, onions cost Rs 50 per kg. Though we didn’t get a salary during the lockdown period, we managed to live happily as the cost of vegetables was very cheap then. But we are now spending Rs 600 per week to get vegetables for a family of four,” said Nandita bhattacharjee, a home-maker from agartala to The Tripura Post on friday. Not only vegetables, but egg also become costly. Per ‘Hali’ poultry egg is now rs 30. “At a time when unemployment has risen due to the imposition of lockdown and poor economic condition, there is no respite from the government side to control the rising prices of all vegetables. The government should take immediate measures to control and cap the prices of vegetables” said Anamika Dhar a resident of Krishnanagar.
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