ATMs go dry in Guwahati, onions sell for ₹`250 per kg
Prabin.Kalita@timesgroup.com
Guwahati:15.12.2019
The ongoing anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation has completely disrupted normal life in Guwahati, with people having to face severe food shortage and sky-high prices, no cash in ATMs and defunct card-swiping machines. Also, most fuel stations have gone dry due to supply disruptions or have been crippled by lack of cash and internet facilities.
Food prices have shot up sharply with onions hitting ₹250/kg and potatoes being sold for ₹60/kg after markets reopened at 9am on Saturday as part of a seven-hour relaxation in curfew. The price of lean chicken now is ₹500/kg and rohu fish ₹420/kg. A bundle of spinach, which usually sells for ₹10, is now selling for ₹60.
Guwahati — which saw five days of intense protests marred by large-scale violence and vandalism leading to the imposition of curfew — is completely dependent on vegetables supplied from areas on its outskirts, which are then sold to retailers at the city’s wholesale market.
The wholesalers said they could buy limited stocks of vegetables, and whatever was available was sold out within hours of the market opening on Saturday morning.
Since last Sunday, hundreds of trucks carrying agricultural products have been stranded at Srirampur and Boxirhat on the West Bengal-Assam border. “The supply chain has been completely disrupted. The government needs to take immediate steps to restore it,” said Sisir Dev Kalita, secretary general of Assam Chamber of Commerce. “With no supply, this price rise was inevitable. We have appealed to traders to keep the prices at the lowest possible level. We expect the markets to be normal from Monday,” he added.
Besides the problem of demand-supply mismatch, the morning also saw a severe crisis of cash in the city. Long queues formed outside the handful of ATMs that had some cash in them, and even these were emptied quickly. ATMs in the city have not been replenished with cash for the past three days. To add to people’s misery, PoS machines have been rendered useless because of the suspension of mobile internet.
On Saturday, the State Bank of India deployed mobile ATM vans to provide some relief to people. “We will carry out this service on Sunday as well,” an SBI official said.
Along with cash, fuel, too, was in short supply in the city.
Full report on www.toi.in
STEEP RISE: People buy vegetables during relaxed hours amid indefinite curfew in Guwahati on Saturday. Food prices have shot up sharply with chickens hitting ₹500/kg and potatoes being sold for ₹60/kg after markets reopened at 9am on Saturday
Prabin.Kalita@timesgroup.com
Guwahati:15.12.2019
The ongoing anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation has completely disrupted normal life in Guwahati, with people having to face severe food shortage and sky-high prices, no cash in ATMs and defunct card-swiping machines. Also, most fuel stations have gone dry due to supply disruptions or have been crippled by lack of cash and internet facilities.
Food prices have shot up sharply with onions hitting ₹250/kg and potatoes being sold for ₹60/kg after markets reopened at 9am on Saturday as part of a seven-hour relaxation in curfew. The price of lean chicken now is ₹500/kg and rohu fish ₹420/kg. A bundle of spinach, which usually sells for ₹10, is now selling for ₹60.
Guwahati — which saw five days of intense protests marred by large-scale violence and vandalism leading to the imposition of curfew — is completely dependent on vegetables supplied from areas on its outskirts, which are then sold to retailers at the city’s wholesale market.
The wholesalers said they could buy limited stocks of vegetables, and whatever was available was sold out within hours of the market opening on Saturday morning.
Since last Sunday, hundreds of trucks carrying agricultural products have been stranded at Srirampur and Boxirhat on the West Bengal-Assam border. “The supply chain has been completely disrupted. The government needs to take immediate steps to restore it,” said Sisir Dev Kalita, secretary general of Assam Chamber of Commerce. “With no supply, this price rise was inevitable. We have appealed to traders to keep the prices at the lowest possible level. We expect the markets to be normal from Monday,” he added.
Besides the problem of demand-supply mismatch, the morning also saw a severe crisis of cash in the city. Long queues formed outside the handful of ATMs that had some cash in them, and even these were emptied quickly. ATMs in the city have not been replenished with cash for the past three days. To add to people’s misery, PoS machines have been rendered useless because of the suspension of mobile internet.
On Saturday, the State Bank of India deployed mobile ATM vans to provide some relief to people. “We will carry out this service on Sunday as well,” an SBI official said.
Along with cash, fuel, too, was in short supply in the city.
Full report on www.toi.in
STEEP RISE: People buy vegetables during relaxed hours amid indefinite curfew in Guwahati on Saturday. Food prices have shot up sharply with chickens hitting ₹500/kg and potatoes being sold for ₹60/kg after markets reopened at 9am on Saturday
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