Sikkim cries along with nation over the price of onions ANAND OBEROI

GANGTOK, 19 Sept: The soaring onion prices have affected household budgets to a large extent since food costs account for a significant share of the common man’s income. Onion prices have increased threefold in the past three months to a whopping Rs. 80 per kg at Lall Bazaar at present against Rs. 25 per kg earlier this year.
Onions, considered an important ingredient in all kitchens, has now become a luxury for many people like Vandana Mukhia who has to make a choice between onions and saving some money for the family vacation planned for this winter.
“I literally have to pinch from our savings budget to meet the demand of onions at home nowadays. We generally consume around 2 kgs per week that cost us around Rs.45-50 earlier, now the same costs us around Rs.160-180. The rise in other vegetables has also add to our dilemma and if this continues then a time may come when everyone will start cutting down onions and vegetables from their shopping lists, a forced compulsion that has already started,” says Vandana while speaking to NOW! today.    
It may be informed that the ‘Onion crisis’ in the Indian market is a result of acute shortage of supply due to unseasonal and heavy rainfall, late harvest, rise in diesel prices and also the financial crash that the country is experiencing. Illegal hoarding by onion traders is also being blamed for the food inflation that is on a three-year high as per national statistics.
This, sky-rocketing of prices that is showing no signs of stabilizing has reached a peak where onions have become more or equally expensive than meat products in Sikkim and this is also affecting vegetable hawkers and wholesalers to a huge extent.
Gauri Shanker, a vegetable vendor at Lall Bazaar maintains that it is because of the profit margin that people like him opt for this business, but in recent times the inflation in food items like vegetables is affecting businessmen like him who are thinking of newer avenues.
“There are some who do not understand that it is not us who are raising the prices and we are not making huge profits. We have to maintain checks and balances in our business and now it is difficult for us to make even a small margin of profit. Our rates are continuously monitored by the authorities and we have to maintain the same. With the rise in onion prices, many people have started purchasing half of what they used to buy earlier, our sales have been affected and with the prices rising every two days, a time may come when people will stop buying vegetables altogether,” says the vegetable vendor.
It may also be informed that local village produce in markets like Lall Bazaar are limited and timely and constitute only around 5 percent of the requirement of vegetables in Gangtok. With 95 percent of the total vegetable supply in the state coming from outside markets, the rise in prices is inevitable as prospects of normalization in the coming days seem bleak.
With the pinch being felt even in the pockets of people with secure financial backgrounds, the big question is what of the daily wage earners and financially weak families? The rise in onion prices has now contributed to the rise of prices in food items available in the various hotels, restaurants, canteens and tea shops. Menus are being changed and something like a Samosa that cost Rs.5 per piece in 2010 now costs Rs.10. With onions in the process of becoming an item of luxury, one would not be surprised if momos came sans the onions in the near future.