Parties race at veggie market to woo voters

With assembly elections approaching, politicians in the state are trying to woo voters through cheaper vegetables and food grains. The state government and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Tuesday opened centres to sell vegetables at cheaper rates. Shiv Sena has been already running such centres.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan inaugurated a cheap vegetable centre at Sahakar Bhandar in Colaba. Marketing minister Harshawardhan Patil has announced to open 100 such centres at 20 different regions all over the city.

“The vegetables at the government centres will be 30 to 35 per cent cheaper than the market price,” said Patil. “We will also supply sugar at a price of Rs20 per kg to the people above the poverty line. The government will purchase the sugar from factories at a price of Rs30 per kg and will give a subsidy of Rs10 per kg to the consumer.”

Chavan said that the government was simultaneously trying to control the prices of vegetables in the open market. On Independence Day Chavan had announced that the government would sell toor daal at a price of Rs55 per kg through the public distribution scheme. However, the announcement remained just an assurance because the government did not get enough stockpiles from the Union government.

The MNS too opened a centre for cheaper food grains at Bandra (West). “We have set up a trust, Savitri Pratishthan, to supply food grains at cheaper rates. At present, we will supply sugar, wheat, rice and pulses at Rs10 to Rs25 lesser than the market prices,” said Shalini Thackeray, vice-president of MNS’ women’s wing.

The Shiv Sena has already started selling vegetables and food grains at cheaper rates at Dadar and Thane. “We are selling potatoes and onions too apart from toor daal. More than 5,000 people visited our stall since it was set up in first week of August,” said a party official.