Within days of opening shop, the state government’s potato retail counters have come a cropper, with buyers not willing to pay Rs 13 per kg for rotten potatoes when good quality ones are available in the open market for Rs 15 per kg. The result: instead of potato prices going down, they have actually gone up by 20 paise in the wholesale market, with retailers making a killing.
During a ground check in Jadu Babur Bazaar of Bhowanipore, there were hardly 15-20 persons in the queue in the morning at the government retail counter while the sellers in the adjacent open market in the same area were doing brisk business.
“Earlier, we were buying potatoes from the government retail counters. But after taking it home, we found half of them were rotten. We could not even sort out the stock while buying. So if we get good quality potatoes at Rs 15 per kg, there is no point buying the rotten ones at Rs 13 per kg,” said Amalendu Biswas, a buyer in the Bhowanipore market.
