Vegetable Vendor in Varanasi Hires Bouncers as Tomato Prices Skyrocket

Varanasi: With tomato prices reaching as high as Rs 160 per kg, a vegetable vendor in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi has hired bouncers to protect his stall and keep customers at bay. The vegetable vendor, identified as Ajay Fauji, said that people are indulging in violence and even looting tomatoes while adding he does not want any arguments at
his shop. “I have hired bouncers because the tomato price is too high. People are indulging and even looting tomatoes. Since we have tomatoes in the shop, we don’t want any arguments, so we have bouncers here,” he said while speaking to the news agency PTI. He has also kept signboards at his stall which read: “Pehle paisa baad mein tamatar” (Payment first, tomatoes later) and “Kripya tamatar aur mirch ko nahi chhuye” (Please don’t touch tomatoes and green chillies). Fauji added that the sudden rise in prices of tomatoes has prompted consumers to reduce their consumption of tomatoes.“Tomatoes are selling for Rs 160 per kg. People are buying 50 or 100 gms.” Meanwhile, a smartphone shop owner in Madhya Pradesh has decided to give away tomatoes to customers free of cost with mobile phones. Abhishek, the owner of the shop, said: “Since tomatoes have become expensive and we want to offer something to customers due to increased competition in the market, we decided to offer tomatoes with smartphones.” Farmers have said tomato price hike can be attributed to production shortages due to extreme heat and delayed arrival of monsoon. Tomato prices go up during July-August every year as harvesting and transportation of the highly perishable commodity gets affected due to the monsoon season. The Met Department on Sunday predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in various parts of the country till July 13. The weather office predicted isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Uttar Pradesh from July 10-13 and also predicted light/moderate widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall over Konkan and Goa, ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra and Gujarat during the next 3 days. The IMD further said: “Fairly widespread to widespread light/ moderate rainfall with isolated Heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim, Assam- & Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur during next 5 days. Isolated heavy rainfall likely over Odisha during next 5 days; Jharkhand during 10th-12th; Andaman & Nicobar Islands during 09th-10th July and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Bihar during 11th-13th July.”

About Post Author