In the holy month of Kartika when non-vegetarian stuffs are forbidden in many kitchens of Odisha, potatoes, the quintessential vegetable on every platter, vanished from the markers of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
Despite the efforts by the Civil Supplies Department to sell potatoes at five Maitri and 22 Udyan Fresh counters at the reasonable price of Rs 22 a kg in the capital city, potatoes were not available at any of these counters on Thursday. Decrying the Government’s inefficiency in ensuring availability of potatoes, customers demanded immediate proactive measures to bring back normalcy.
Even as the Cuttack district administration endeavoured to sell potatoes at fair price shops at Rs 20 a kilo, the 32 shops run by the Civil Supplies Department were not enough to meet the Millennium city’s demand. More shockingly, potatoes were not available with any vendor on the day in the city’s biggest vegetable market at Chhatrabazar.
At some places in the city, potatoes were selling at Rs 30 per kg, making it dear for even the salaried persons. “If potatoes have vanished from the market, other available vegetables are impossible to lay hands on for unheard of prices. The prices of the vegetables available were above Rs 50 a kg,” despaired a Government employee.
The fair price shops made an attempt to sell potatoes at Rs 20 a kg, but soon the 32 fair price shops had to down their shutters as their stocks exhausted in no time. “We had supplied only two sacks of potatoes to every shop and it was rationed selling only one kg to each buyer,” said an employee of the department.
Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said that since potato shortage is a supply demand issue the Government is in the process for supply augmentation. “Since transportation of potatoes from West Bengal was stopped we are looking for other sources and hope that we will sort out the crisis soon,” he said.