High flower prices put off devotees

Warangal: Forget about offering candies to almighty this festive season, even the flowers and fruits have gone out of reach for the commoners. Since the onset of Sravanam a few days ago, and Krishna Pushkaralu to commence from Friday, the prices of all flowers have shot up sharply here due to increased demand.

Never before in the recent past, the prices of flowers skewed upwards in the markets in tri-cities of Warangal, Hanamkonda and Kazipet on Thursday on the eve of Varalakshmi Vratham falling on Friday (August 12).

However, all the roads in the city are abuzz with customers thronging the roadside flower vendors, a very few appeared to have no complaints over the pricing of the commodity. Aghast with the high prices, a large number of people were found themselves in a bargaining impasse.

In the end, they were seen leaving the vendors truncating their purchase to a minimal.The marigold (Banti), which usually available at a price of Rs 30 a kg is shot up to Rs 100. The other most commonly used flower Chrysanthemum (Chamanthi) is being sold at a price of Rs 500 a kg which should have been below Rs 100 a kg.

Needless to say, the jasmines and roses too have become very expensive. While a cubit of jasmine string (moora in local parlance) is around Rs 50 with a three-fold increase, the price of roses has become a thorn in the flesh of customers with Rs 20 per 50 grams.

Rahimunnisa Begum, a vendor at Hanamkonda chowrastha, who procures flowers from the wholesale market in Hyderabad, told The Hans India: “With flowers grown in Telangana doesn’t suffice to local needs, invariably the commodity is being imported from Bengaluru in Karnataka and other States. With too many festivals around, flower prices have been shot up for the last one week.”

Kumar Gurrapa, who works with a polyclinic, said: “Not just the flowers, the prices of fruits, especially the bananas, coconut and what not, all jacked up?” All that we can do is to confine ourselves as per the needs of puja.”