Mumbai: Veggie prices returning to normal but LPG woes in eastern suburbs

MUMBAI: The wholesale market of APMC Vashi witnessed the arrival of more than 1,400 trucks -- 800 bearing vegetables and the the rest fruit, onion-potato, foodgrain and spices – on Saturday. This was enough to provide supplies to localities which could arrange transport.
Prices gained near-normalcy with rates dropping to Rs 80-100 per kilo for common garden vegetables.Prabhadevi and Parel residents were delighted to see heaps of new produce flood the stalls. Vegetable vendors in Matunga and Super Fresh, Lokhandwala, both confirmed that prices were near normal and would normalise completely on Sunday. APMC market, which is ordinarily closed, will be open for business.
In an exception, Crawford Market dealers could not fetch fresh supplies so vegetable rates there stayed high at Rs 50 per quarter of a kilo. People in Mumbra and Thane were dissatisfied as local authorities regulated timings of the market. Potato and onion remain expensive, however, selling for Rs 50 per kilo in Ghatkopar, Rs 40 in Andheri Lokhandwala and Rs 40 in Khar. The normal average is Rs 25. Coriander bunches are still selling for Rs 30-40 as against Rs 10.
The BMC set up an organised hawking zone of 240 vendors in Ghatkopar East. The person behind the pilot project, NCP corporator Rakhi Jadhav, has placed hawkers 20 ft apart and made them use masks and sanitisers. Bandra corporator Asif Zakaria arranged markings outside Nature’s Basket on Hill Road and near vegetable vendors on Pali Mala Road to ensure social distancing. Shopkeepers in Andheri Lokhandwala and Kalwa, Thane, kept customers at the threshold where they handed supplies. Hiccups in transportation and exodus of labour remain a hurdle, though. Prabhadevi residents have not seen bread in seven days and are rediscovering indigenous pav like the rest of the city.
LPG delivery was precarious in Bhandup and Thane with the old and ailing carrying heavy cylinders. In Bhandup West, Punaram Vishnoi, who runs Liberty gas agency, said, “We have 35-40 deliverymen of whom four or five are available to work. The rest have left for their villages. There is ample stock of gas cylinders because our supply vehicles arrive regularly. Three or four trucks filled with 350 cylinders each come to Bhandup each day, so the consignment is enough to last even five days of non-supply. The only trouble is with dispatch, but our locality is populated by slumdwellers who are understanding. They say they will bring our empty cylinders and carry the refill.”
Only traders issued the Essential Services pass are being allowed entry into APMC Market. Not many Mumbai traders have passes so many are denied entry. On Saturday many trucks waited in queue to be sanitised.