By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Aug. 27: The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection (DoCSCP) has intensified the monitoring of the vegetables stalls following the complaints that the price of vegetables has skyrocketed.

The DoCSCP has stepped up for the market monitoring after the complaints of the unnatural increment of pricing of the vegetables after the enforcement of the prohibitory order in the Kathmandu Valley.

As many as 15 people from the department monitored more than 70 retail vegetable shops of the valley on Thursday.

Rabindra Acharya, Communication Officer at the DoCSCP said that the monitoring was carried out in Kritipur, Kalanki, Chabahil, Kapan, Mulpani, Baneshwor, Koteshwor, Balkot, Kageshwari Manahara, Balkot, Jorpati, Marajganj, Basundhara, Kusunti and Samakushi.

The price of the vegetables varied place to place while monitoring the pricing of the vegetables. As it was the first monitoring of its kind, no action was taken nor anyone was finned, added Acharya.

The officials deployed for the monitoring of the vegetables are evaluating the prices at different places to study the vegetable pricing. 

We will ask for the purchase bill where it is expensive, if the high price difference is observed, then the necessary action is taken according to the law, added Acharya.

The department has increased the monitoring saying that if the regulatory body is not present in the market, the price will go out of control. The department is more focused on providing the awareness to the shopkeepers on the first stage rather than finning them.

Acharya said,” There is a price difference in the vegetables grown inside and outside the tunnel. Because of the middleman, the farmers are getting not the real price and customers are paying the high price for the purchase.

10 to 20 rupees per kg has gone down after a day of inspection, said the department. If the inspection is intensified by the department then the shopkeepers levying high price will not be exempted from taking the necessary action, said the department.

Prem Lal Maharjan, chairman of the National Consumers Forum said that the prices have not come down in a way that consumers can feel even though the department monitors the vegetables.

The government’s market monitoring is more concerned about its own publicity rather than providing relief to the customers which is unfair to the customer, he added.