MUMBAI: Unable to prevent prices of vegetables and fruits from going through the roof, the state government is now promising their supply to Mumbaikars at reduced rates, a promise observers say needs to be taken with a pile of salt. Starting Monday, the government will—for the first time since 1999—sell vegetables and fruits at a price 30% lower than the current retail rate at select co-operative outlets across the city.
The announcement comes a day after the Union Cabinet approved the ordinance on the food security bill and amid speculation that the government is preparing for elections.
"Vegetable prices in the city are high despite a good monsoon. While it is not the government's job to procure and sell vegetables, market intervention is a tool it is forced to use when prices are artificially inflated," state agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil told TOI.
TOI had reported on June 29 how retailers in the city have hiked vegetable prices to four times their wholesale value despite a good harvest.
How the new scheme works on the ground, given the logistics, quality-control issues and fears of dumping of sub-standard veggies, remains to be seen. There are also concerns over why the rates are pegged 30% lower than already inflated rates.
But the state government is confident about its implementation. It says it will initially stock supplies at 10 ten outlets; if the programme takes off, 90 more stores would be added. Of the 10 outlets, seven would be at Apna Bazar stores at Andheri, Ghatkopar, Sion and Dadar, among other places; the other three will be at stores of the Sahakari Bhandar and Supari Baug.
The stocks would be procured by the Agriculture Mahasangh, a body of wholesale traders, from collection centres of the state-run Agriculture Produce Markets Committee (APMC). They will be cleaned, graded, packed and transported to outlets of the co-operative stores which are members of the state-run Maharashtra State Consumer Federation, an umbrella body of more than 100 co-operatives.
State officials said a daily MRP list will be displayed at the stores, and the arrangement would continue for a month, by which time they expect fresh stock arriving in the market to help rein in prices. This programme was first implemented for a month in 1999 when retailers had similarly hiked rates, officials said.
The traders would be exempted from paying state cess (currently charged at 0.85 paisa per kg), and transportation and labour charges would be relaxed as well. This would save the traders Rs 6-7 per kg, officials said.
The government says retail rates per kg should be just Re 3-4 more than the wholesale rates, inclusive of transportation, loading charges and spoilage.
"We have agreed to provide space in the stores as the government has assured full support in logistics and pricing," said Anil Ganger, chairman of Apna Bazar. Managers of co-operative stores, however, fear that their outlets may become dumping grounds for poor-quality vegetables.
"The government continues to have a hold over co-operative stores. We are forced to buy sacks of vegetables weighing 50kg when the requirement is not even a fraction of that amount. Certain favoured suppliers at the APMC market are chosen to carry out this scheme, and often, they make a killing at the expense of cooperatives," a manager at one of the outlets said. "Why not buy directly from farmers and sell at a fraction of the market rate, or why not allow us to choose our own suppliers?" he asked.
"This is an election gimmick. We have been suffering losses running into lakhs of rupees every time the government comes up with a so-called subsidy on vegetables. The appointed suppliers provide fresh, good-quality produce for the first day or two until the photo-ops are over. On the third or fourth day, co-operative stores become a dumping ground for vegetables that no consumer will touch. Moreover, the rate remains unchanged. Why will consumers purchase wilted, smelly vegetables for Rs 60-65 a kg when they can get fresh produce at the neighbourhood greengrocer for a few rupees more?" the manager added.
The manager of a suburban co-operative store said: "Several cooperative stores are not air-conditioned, so we literally throw out vegetables worth lakhs of rupees every evening at the close of business. The government does not provide storage facilities or take back spoiled goods. The next morning, sacks of bad vegetables arrive and remain unsold through the day."
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