Prices of pulses skyrocket

Hyderabad: Much to the discomfort of consumers, retail prices of key pulses have risen sharply in most parts of the state in view of likely shortfall in kharif production of lentils following deficient rain.

People in the two Telugu speaking states who recently battled nearly record high rates of onions are now faced with costly pulses. Prices of pulses such as red gram,

black gram and green gram have been shooting up abnormally when compared to the prices a couple of months ago. Black gram unusually increased from Rs 120 to 160-170 now and red gram to 130-140.

The government, however, concentrated only on onions providing them at subsidy, ignoring pulses. It may be recalled that red gram, black gram and green gram were sold at Rs 120 kg in the market in the first week of July.

Now, the prices are at their peak as there is no control on the market prices. According to official sources, the rise in prices is a phenomenon that has been witnessed across the country.

They said the total demand for the pulses in the country was 2.71 crore tonnes while the availability was 1.71 crore tonnes. Middle class people who are lacking white cards have to bear the brunt of these high prices in the open market.

The FP shops are selling black gram at Rs 150 per kg and red gram at Rs 85. A family of four members which consumes on an average of about 3 kg of red gram, 1 kg of urad dal, 1 kg of moong dal and 1 kg of green grams, the monthly budget has gone up by Rs 1000 only on pulses.