Common people are very upset with the rising prices of onions in the State. Onions are being sold from Rs 60 to 80 per kg in retail markets in the State. Due to rain, onion crops in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have suffered damage due to which there is less supply of onion in the market.
Traders say that prices have increased due to short supply. Due to heavy rains in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, standing kharif crop has also been damaged, due to which supply has been disrupted.
Significantly, the traders of the wholesale market of onion are saying that there is no hope of relief for a month at the moment. It is estimated that the onion will be expensive till the new crop comes. The cost of onion will increase due to shortage, because after Navratri, its consumption can increase more rapidly. The government has banned the export of onion, but it does not have much effect.
Onion prices rise not only affecting common people's kitchens but also street food vendors also. A food cart vendor Shreeram who installed his cart in front of Gandhinagar Hospital at Kanke Road in the State Capital said it has become very difficult to run the shop in such a situation. The customers are not willing to pay increased prices of products and selling in existing prices is not profitable at present.
Expressing his unhappiness over onion price rise, Rajesh Prasad resident of Kanke Road, Ranchi said people it has become difficult for people like us who are not salaried class. He decided not to buy onion in his weekly purchases because of the increased prices of onions, as he cannot tolerate it. He has two children, worked in a salon but missed his job during lockdown.
Prasad said, "We have to manage everything without onions. I have been at home for the last seven months. I am not getting any job. I have two children and they are finding it very difficult to maintain. When the price of onion drops, only then we will be able to buy it. "
After the onion price rise, politics always intensifies and pressure on the Government starts increasing. Onion prices had become an issue in last year during the months of October and November when the State Assembly election was going on.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal has defended the Government by tweeting. He tweeted that many steps have been taken by the Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister to make onions available to consumers at an affordable price, ranging from restrictions on onion exports, relaxation of import rules, and supply of onions from buffer stocks.
