Jahangir Sofi
Srinagar, Apr 14: With the arrival of the Holy month of Ramadan the prices of fruits and vegetables have gone sky high with people questioning the administration for failing to keep a check on prices set by the roadside fruit vendors.
However the fruit vendors attribute the price hike to increase of wholesale rates by dealers in Mandis.
A fruit vendor selling the fruits on Srinagar- Baramulla highway said that the increase in the price of fruits and vegetables is because of the rates decided by the wholesale dealers in the Mandi.
“We get the fruits at high rates and sell it accordingly”, he said.
A senior citizen said that fruit vendors decide the rates on their own as there is no checking parameter for them.
“All around the valley most of these fruit vendors have made mafia. Enforcing agency is merely making tall claims but on grounds, nothing is happening,” he said.
President of the Fruit Mandi Association Bashir Ahmad Bashir said the fruits and vegetables are sold at reasonable wholesale rates and as per the demand and supply, the concerned department has to check the retail vendors who are selling at high rates.
“The items which one gets in the mandi at the price of Rs 50 is being sold in the retail market at the price of Rs 100 hundred. To regulate the rates in the market the concerned department has to come forward to enforce the genuine rates,” he said.
Director FCS&CA KASHMIR, Bashir Ahmad Khan, did not respond to repeated calls and messages to comment on the issue.
