Onions at ₹60 a kg leave a bitter taste for consumers

Subsidised stalls with little stocks didn’t help, feel citizens

There were not many takers for onions at Patamata Rythu Bazar in Vijayawada on Monday.

Onions have yet again become the cause of concern for the citizens as the price of the vegetable has crossed the ₹60 a kg mark across all the rythu bazaars in the city.

On Monday, the price touched ₹63 per kg and most of the onion stalls in the rythu bazaars put up a ‘no stock’ board.

The vendors at the rythu bazaars at Swaraj Maidan and Patamata said the sharp rise in the price of onions could be attributed to the continuous rainfall in Maharashtra.

“Even though we are ready to buy onions even at ₹6,000 per quintal from the wholesale markets, there are no stocks available,” said S. Ganesh, a wholesale trader.

Recently, to counter the rising prices of onions in the city, the Agriculture Marketing Department set up stalls which exclusively sold onions at a subsidised price of ₹25. However, consumers complained that the stock at the stalls lasted only for a short period of time and ‘no stock’ boards started appearing.

“The exclusive counters ran out of onions too soon. While the quality of the vegetable sold at some stalls was substandard, some others sold it at a higher price,” said a buyer K. Annapurna.

Action against hoarders

Officials suspect that the shortage of onions has been artificially created by hoarders.

Krishna Collector A. Md. Imtiaz directed the officials of the Agriculture Marketing Department to keep a check on the supply of onions and conduct raids on hoarders.