Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar, Mar 14 : Surging prices of fruits are hitting the common man badly in Srinagar city.
Consumers are blaming the authorities concerned have failed to check the market rates of fruits leaving them to lurch at large.
The consumers from Srinagar are lamenting the concerned department’s inaction for not ensuring the implementation of set rates on fruits, saying that skyrocketing prices are beyond the reach of a common man.
“Not just the healthy people, the fruits are also meant for most of the patients at homes or at hospitals, but given the high prices of fruits, purchase has become very difficult for a common man,” said a group of aggrieved people in Srinagar.
People say that to afford fruits for an average family has become beyond the reach, and that the government announced fruit rates exist only in papers.
Questioning the high prices of fruits, Mohammad Aslam, a retired government official told news agency KINS, “In retail markets, oranges are sold at as high as Rs 220 per dozen, while pomegranates are sold a kilogram from Rs 150 to 250, bananas are sold at the rate of 100 per dozen, and the price of grapes ranges from 150 to 300 per kg.”
Similarly, there are other fruits that are sold in the market at exorbitant rates, making it difficult for common man to purchase.
“It is very difficult for me to buy a kilo of Pomegranate or oranges as the price of the fruits is out of reach for me. It is not even easy to purchase other fruits easily as the prices are so high,” said Muzafar Ahmad, a shopkeeper.
“There is no enforcement of government rates as far as the sale of fruits is concerned in the retail market, a fruit seller makes no scope for any bargain, and says the fruit rates are higher from the Mandi,” he said.
Responding to the reports the officials of FCS&CA said that their teams are already checking the rates in the market. “There are already teams constituted across the valley who regularly check the market rates of fruits and other commodities, but since this is coming to our notice, we will intensify the market checking and those who will be found selling fruits or other commodities at high rates, action will follow against them,” he said. (KINS)
