The increasing prices of daily commodities have become a headache for the citizens of the nation. Hike in onion and other essential commodities including scarcity of petrol is now interrupting the life of city dwellers.  Few days ago, the dear bulb made headlines with its excessively high cost. Production of onion crop was affected due to heavy and unseasonal rainfall in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. As a result of this, onion prices have increased in the entire country. The wholesale price of onion has increased by 120 per cent within a fortnight at Lasalgaon market in Nashik district. Onions are selling at Rs 120-150 per kg across the country. However now, milk has become dearer as India’s leading milk firms like Amul and Mother Dairy have decided to raise their prices by up to Rs 2  to 3 per litre on the back of constrained supply.

Elson Dantis, Merchant Navy officer said, “The recent crisis in food prices which has affected thousands of families throughout India has once again underscored the urgent need for governments to strengthen their safety net systems to ensure that the rise in the price of basic commodities does not trigger an increase in poverty rates.”

He further continued stating, “The hardest hit is the common man, below average consumers or we can say the middle-class people and the poor people. Due to the price rise, the purchase of essential commodities like pulses, rice, sugar or medicines etc has gone beyond the reach of one’s pocket.”

The common man’s household budget suffered another blow by this hike. If we notice minutely, then most of stocks in stores and shops have already been exhausted.  The supplies of perishable commodities have been adversely impacted due to weather-related phenomenon such as flooding and extended monsoon.

Dipti Joshi, a resident of Virar said, “In Maharashtra, if you can’t afford to buy vegetables, people eat ‘Kanda Bhakari’. But this too is not possible today because of spiralling prices of the commodity. Giving another blow to the household budget, the prices of milk, fuel and LPG have also gone up.”

“What exactly is happening with the common citizen, no one knows. I think, it’s a vicious cycle and the trader lobby and middlemen are benefitting from even the slightest price fluctuation.”

Reportedly, the milk price component in the wholesale price index has shown an upward trajectory for the last seven years. This means that consumers have been paying higher prices for milk every year. This is the second increase in milk price this year as the previous hike was in the month of May. The major dairy firms have raised milk prices in several markets like Maharashtra, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad  and Mumbai from Sunday. According to a milk firm ‘the adverse climatic conditions have resulted in a significant increase in the prices of feed and fodder’.

Shiv Rajvanshi- Brand Strategist & Public Relations Expert said,“Price hike of commodities of daily usage is very unfortunate for people belonging to lower and middle-class in India. In the coming days as always, the prices will spiral, like this time. Vegetables are hovering in the range of Rs 80-100 per kilo, onions still cost Rs 150 per kg. Fuel and LPG have become expensive too. This is another big blow to the household budget.”

As per the report given by Amul, the price of a litre of buffalo milk will go up from Rs 55 to Rs 57, whereas Amul Gold from Rs 53 to Rs 55, Cow milk from Rs 45 to Rs 47, and Amul Taaza from Rs 43 to Rs 45. Other dairies are expected to follow suit.

Shivani Lokhanade, Freelancer HR Executive said,“Instead of solving common man’s problems, the government is busy doing unnecessary work. They have conveniently forgotten that due to us, they are in power. People should unitedly boycott this government or do something serious so that they will be forced to pay attention to these problems.”

As per Amul, the increase in milk price this year’s extended monsoon caused the price of cattle feed to rise by 35 per cent. And the company is paying the dairy farmers 15 per cent more. Understandably, some of this additional input cost had to be passed on to the consumer.

On the other hand, Mother Dairy has increased its prices of milk by Rs. 3. The firm issued a statement which says, “This has impacted the prices we pay to milk producers. The raw milk prices, which in a normal year, decrease during winter months, have increased drastically. The prices paid to milk producers have been hiked by about Rs 6 per kg in the last few months up by almost 20 per cent than the corresponding period last year.” The dairy firm has been compelled to raise its milk prices in Delhi NCR for all its milk variants with effect from December 15, 2019.