A few consumer cooperative societies have stepped in to ease the problems of consumers who are reeling under rising prices of vegetables, by opening 11 centres where 15 types of vegetables are sold on a “no profit no loss” basis with susidised rates of up to 30 to 40 per cent. These centres that were opened on Tuesday cover parts of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The initiative was undertaken with the joint tri-partite efforts of APMC, state government (which is granting a transport subsidy) and consumer cooperative societies Apna Bazar, Suparibaug Central Cooperative Consumer Federation Ltd and Sahakar Bazar. The centres are open between 4 pm and 8 pm.
On day one, shops were opened at Matunga, Andheri, Mulund, Naigaon, Ghatkopar, Kal-wa, Chembur, Mumbai Central etc and the consumer cooperative societies plan to open 100 centres across the city in the coming days.
“We fight for the rights of consumers. This was the right opportunity to rescue them from increasing prices of vegetables. We contacted the government and members of the APMC market in Vashi. The state government gave us 2,500 trollies and bore the transport expenses from the APMC market to Parel and Lalbaug, so we are passing on this transport subsidy to the end consumers,” said Kishore Desai, managing director of Suparibaug Central Cooperative Consumer Federation Ltd, who is running the centres at Parel and Lalbaug.
The consumer bodies have also planned to persuade big housing societies to allow sale of subsidised vegetables in society premises. “We have only supplied manpower and an office to run the centres, while APMC personnel maintain the balance sheet. We want to apply the same pattern in housing societies, too. If this idea clicks, it could be a landmark way of dealing with the prices of commodities in the future,” added Mr Desai.