The relative disparity in food prices at restaurants in and around Vadakara has drawn the attention of the Vadakara Taluk Development Committee.
The committee took up the issue following public complaints. Restaurants with no trappings of luxury were charging high prices for tea, snacks, and meals, sources said.
The committee will convene a meeting of all the restaurant entrepreneurs in the area. C.K. Nanu, MLA, will be the mediator. The focus will be on grade-wise unification of prices and reduction to the extent possible.
This will be the second meeting to be convened by the committee. The first meeting did not succeed as the entrepreneurs rejected all price-reduction proposals.
“The unification of prices is a practical idea, but, a decrease in prices is highly unfair in the current scenario,” an entrepreneur who was part of the first-round discussions said.
The high prices of essential commodities had prompted restaurants to revise the rates. But, there was a lack of coherence in the fixing of prices and the rates were exorbitantly high, customers in the regions said.
“In Vadakara town, one gets a cup of tea for various prices. Same is the case with meals and other food items. The wayside eateries are the only solace. They deliberately charge less now to attract customers, fed up with the unjust pricing of restaurants,” says Praveen Kumar, an autorickshaw driver. The prices are specifically high in the town and those who travelled to Kozhikode and Kannur were not affected as much as those living here, customers said. The price of ‘ordinary meals,’ without any non-vegetarian dishes, was Rs.30 even in small eateries. “The price is justifiable if the restaurants offer a hygienic ambiance and basic facilities,” they said.
