Onion prices continued to sore in the State capital and other parts of the country giving sleepless nights to the political leaderships in the State and the Centre.
While the common man continued to be in tears due to soaring onion prices, both the State and Central Governments are not taking any step to contain the spiralling prices. On the contrary, they are engaged in blame-game and are holding each other responsible for the issue haunting every household at the moment.
The prices of onion that crossed `100 per kg mark in Bhopal in past couple of days, was sold at `120 per kg in retail on Wednesday. Though the crisis appeared to be man-made but there was no let up in the price at the Colony-level, with prices crossing `120 a kg in many localities.
Intriguingly, there was wide variation even within short distances, confirming the fear that hoarders could be at work. “This shows there is hoarding or delayed selling by traders to create artificial crisis,” said a vegetable vendor in Koh-e-Fiza.
A wholesaler in Nav Bahar Sabji Mandi said that the prices were soaring due to short supply from Maharashtra. For the last two days onion prices reached `100-120 per kg in all markets of the State capital town which is poll-bound on November 25.
Bhopal gets onion supply from Maharashtra and a thin supply from districts of west Nimarh which shares border with Maharashtra. The prices of onion were hovering between `50-100 for the last three months.
Meena Fazil, a house maker residing at posh Eidgah Hills locality said, “The soaring onion prices on the occasion of Eid ul Azha made the festival dowdy, as onion is most important ingredient of all the dishes prepared in this festival.”
Another home maker Vandita Pardeshi said that the high onion prices in the festive season were hitting hard on their budget and they were forced to make meal either with without onion or with very little quantity of it.
Rekha, a domestic help said that they used to have their meal by eating onion with roti but the soaring prices have snatched away their meal and left to gulp roti with water.
While the common man hit hard by the rocketing prices of the essential commodity remained in tears the politicians were seeing this as an opportunity to shine up their politics and were doing so by holding each other responsible for the crisis.