Vegetable and fruit prices may go up in the Capital as the trade has been hit hard due to cash crunch. A crisis may soon erupt in the national Capital with traders threatening to shut down the wholesale vegetable and fruit markets for a few days due to cash crunch. Business in the mandi slumped by almost 30-40 per cent on Saturday. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday expressed concern after meeting with Azadpur mandi’s traders.”Modi ‘ji’ should take action against big and powerful corrupt rather than harass aam aadmi,” Kejriwal tweeted. “Met traders and laborers at Azadpur Mandi. (Demonetisation) could adversely affect daily supply of fruits and vegetables to Delhi if liquidity problem is not solved. (I) am worried,” he tweeted.
Traders in various mandis claimed that perishable items especially tomatoes, spinach, capsicum, radish and several other vegetables were worst affected as lesser number of small traders, middlemen and retailers turned up in the market for trade activities. On Saturday, only a few (both farmer and traders) come up at Mandi for trade. The problem in the mandi percolated down to the retail market where several vendors had trouble getting stock. While many said that they had taken goods on credit, they were unable to make sufficient sales as customers had run out of cash. “I can’t buy any more goods as I don’t have liquidity. I am waiting for the queues at the banks and ATMs to get shorter before I go and withdraw cash,” said a vegetable vendor in Yamuna Vihar.
“We haven’t been able to pay farmers and labourers for the past three days. Also, sales have suffered because retailers do not have cash to pay us. We have asked the government to allow us to withdraw 50 per cent of our daily sales from banks or we will be forced to close down till the market stabilises,” said Rajendra Sharma, former APMC chairman.