Retail loot : Mandi prices a fraction of what you pay

NEW DELHI: It's profiteering of the worst kind and you are at the receiving end. The potatoes you bought yesterday for anything between Rs 8 and Rs 12 per kg depending on which part of the city you live in, cost your retailer just Rs 3 per kg at the mandi. And the cauliflower he is selling for Rs 12 to Rs 16 per kg costs him only Rs 2 per kg.

You've probably often cribbed to him about the exorbitant prices and he has in apparent sympathy told you, ``kya karen memsahib (or sahib), peechhe se hi mahenga aa raha hai''. Well, that sob isn't true -- in fact, going by the prevailing wholsale rates, it is a pack of lies.

The wholesale prices have, in most cases, dropped to a fraction of what they were at the beginning of December or January, but there has been only a marginal slide in retail prices. In fact, you're paying up to five times the mandi price at your doorstep. Cabbage, for instance, is Rs 4 per kg at the mandi while parts of Delhi are paying Rs 20 per kg to get the leafy vegetable.

Wholesale rates at present are actually among the lowest in the past few months, having seen a continuous downward trend since December 2009 and there is reportedly no shortage of any vegetable. The government is aware of the situation, but says it is helpless.

When contacted, chief minister Sheila Dikshit told TOI: ``It is very difficult since the retailers number in thousands. I have asked the weights and measures department to get active and crack the whip, but simultaneously we have to educate the consumer. Each week we try and get the wholesale rates published so that consumers are aware of the market situation. At least, we have clamped down on the rising trend for the time being.''

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