The highway blockade coupled with lack of market checking has made essentials dearer across Kashmir.
Vegetable sellers in particular are taking full advantage of the situation arising after recent snowfall, giving a damn to the authorities who went missing soon after weather turned hostile.
Reports said a kilogram of onion costs Rs 75 which is almost twice the price people paid before snowfall. Similarly the prices of tomatoes have soared up. The vendors sell them at Rs 60 a kilogram, said reports adding at times the vendors demand Rs 90 for a kilogram.
A CAPD official preferring anonymity said there is shortage of vegetables due to highway blockade but the prices set by the vendors are totally unjustified.
He admitted the failure of the department to regulate the prices of essential commodities. “The officials must come out now and set things right,” he said.
Kashmir has been witnessing continuous shutdown from past more than five months days against the abrogation of Article 370 in the first week of August this year and the situation from past some days have worsened on account of the massive snowfall.
A survey of the various markets in the city revealed the loot at the hands of the vendors. They sell lettuce (saagh) for Rs 70, Nadroo Rs 300, Panjabi potato Rs 50, white potato Rs 40, Spinach Rs 50, cabbage Rs 40, cauliflower Rs 50, Beans Rs 60, lady finger Rs 60, peas Rs 120 per kilogram.