As the rising prices of essential commodities don’t head to any dead end in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country, the Food , Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSA &CA) Department could have taken some measures locally to keep prices under control. Variation in prices of a single commodity of one and only one brand shows that Food , Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSA &CA) department is showing laxity in controlling prices in markets both in Kashmir valley and Jammu division. While the prices rise has been creeping up week after week since March this year, the purchasing capacity of the consumers is reducing fast. While rise in wholesale prices of essential commodities consequently shoot up the retail prices of the essential commodities, the control over both wholesale and retail prices should have been the priority of Food , Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSA &CA) department. While the Food , Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSA &CA) department constitutes squads for checking the quality of essential commodities sold in the markets on the eve of religious festivals like Eid Ul Fitr and Eid Ul Adha, the department does not bother to check either wholesale or retail prices of essential commodities. Complaints are galore that though essential commodities are sold rampantly at exorbitant rates at departmental centres and shopping malls but so for not even once any functionary of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSA &CA) department has checked price of even a single essential commodity at any departmental store or a grocery shop inside a shopping mall. Laxity shown in regulation of both the whole sale and retail prices of essential commodities is one biggest cause of unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities across Jammu & Kashmir. The strategy of checking prices at departmental stores and grocery shops inside shopping malls in cities and towns could have brought the prices of essential commodities under control.
An ordinary consumer not affording to purchase essential commodities at exorbitant prices at departmental stores and grocery shops inside shopping has also lost the accessibility to wide range of choices in purchasing either an essential commodity or any other product . By all standards of understandabilities common consumers have lost the opportunity to purchase commodity of a particular brand on his/her own choice due to loss of government control over regulation of prices of essential commodities at departmental stories and grocery shops inside shopping malls in cities and towns.
With departmental stores and grocery shops at shopping malls going on a looting spree only affluent people now choose to visit departmental stores and grocery shops at shopping malls in cities and towns. With this an ordinary consumer not affording to purchase essential commodities at exorbitant prices at departmental stores and grocery shops inside shopping has also lost the accessibility to wide range of choices in purchasing either an essential commodity or any other product . By all standards of understandabilities common consumers have lost the opportunity to purchase commodity of a particular brand on his/her own choice due to loss of government control over regulation of prices of essential commodities at departmental stories and grocery shops inside shopping malls in cities and towns.
