Farm protest fallout: Prices of veggies rise by 10-20%

Kulwinder Sandhu

Gurugram, February 17

With the farmers’ “Dilli Chalo” agitation entering its fourth day today, vegetable prices at Khandsa Mandi in Gurugram, one of the country’s biggest wholesale markets, have started soaring in the wake of the dwindling fresh supplies of farm produce.

Traders revealed that hundreds of trucks carrying vegetables have got struck in Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Though there is no restriction on the movement of trucks either by the agitating farmers or by the respective state governments but the barricades set up by the Haryana Police on its borders with Punjab have restricted the movement of trucks.

Some routes have been diverted through link routes but it has become difficult for the heavily-loaded trucks to ply on such congested routes.

The wholesale prices of vegetables in the Khandsa vegetable market have increased by 10 to 20 per cent compared to the last week’s prices, said Pradeep Chaudhary, a wholesale trader.

He added that the price of tomatoes in the wholesale market had increased to Rs 13 per kg on Saturday as compared to the last week’s price of Rs 10 per kg. The price of onions had increased to Rs 24 per kg from Rs 22. Potatoes were now being sold at Rs 13 per kg, compared to the last week’s price of Rs 8 per kg.