The rains in the national Capital not only affect the roads or health but the pockets of the common people and vegetable sellers are also attacked. Every monsoon prices of vegetables are hiked. Most of the vegetables and fruits supply in the national Capital come from states like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand. During the rains, supply from these states dwindles because not many trucks ply towards Delhi because of the bad weather, in turn leading to a rise in their prices. Seasonal vegetables such as okra, capsicum, beans have seen a spike in their prices by an average of Rs 15 to Rs 20. Fruits such as mango, watermelon, plums have also gone beyond the reach of the common man in this rainy season. Another whammy is that raw products tend to get spoilt quickly in the monsoon. Fearing lack of supply, vendors sometimes overstock them. Residents, meanwhile, rue that they have to pay more money even for vegetables that are not of very good quality. Housewives are cutting corners to maintain their budgets. From reducing the quantity to completely doing away some dishes from the table till prices stabilise. "I am not cooking any curry-based dish because the price of tomatoes has almost doubled. Same is with fruits. I cannot blame anyone because the vendors, too, have a monopoly. They buy it at a comparatively high rate and sell it at an even higher price," said Pragati Mehta, a resident of Mayur Vihar-I. Meanwhile, vegetable sellers have another complaint about buying expensive produce and a lot of them going to waste because of the rain. "We cannot go and sell door-to-door because of waterlogged roads. So we wait for the customers to arrive. Our botheration to go to the wholesale market has also increased because now we have to go daily to buy our produce as one-third of our merchandise gets wasted due to high moisture content. Earlier, we used to make a trip to the Azadpur Mandi once in three-four days," said Ram Prasad, a vegetable vendor. VOICES Prices are on all-time high now and even the transport people are going on strike, so the prices will inflate more. How will the common man survive if the prices continue to grow like this? Essentials like onion and tomato are so costly that we have to cut down on our consumption.— Dharna Seth, Rohini Every year prices increase and the common man has to suffer. I am a homemaker and I only know how I manage to get two square meals for my family on a budget. Due to the sudden price hike, the whole budget gets disturbed and then we have to cut down on our needs.—Deevanshu Sodha, Karol Bagh Onions and tomatoes, which are the basic requirements in every kitchen, are available at double or triple to their original price. The price hikes are really disturbing the entire monthly budget and also we have to cut on our other expenses to cope with the change.—Lipakshi Seedhar, Pratap Nagar Wending vegetables were never a problem like this before. It is very troublesome for not only the public but also for the retailers to buy things at such high prices. Never have I ever faced problems buying vegetables for the house. I hope these days end soon.—Nihit Sachdeva, Pitampura Rising price is creating a lot of problems. Everything is going out of the budget. Even basic necessities are sometimes hard to afford. Surviving in this kind of price hike era is becoming really difficult. It's easy to go out and eat but it's difficult to buy veggies and cook.— Ravi Pratik, Lajpat Nagar The rains in Delhi cause a lot of havoc. The prices of fruits and vegetables touch the sky and on top of that we have to purchase the vegetables on a daily basis because the ones sold in the stores are not of very good quality, hence can't be stored for long.—Piyansh Gupta, ITO EXPERT SPEAK Prices do increase during the monsoon as supplies get delayed. While the wholesale rate goes up by Rs 5 to Rs 10, the retail vendors further spike them to earn their share of profit. So if a kilogram of okra is available for Rs 25 at the mandi, by the time it reaches the retail market, it is almost double. —Ashok Pradhan, a former member, Azadpur Mandi Association

Stay updated with all the Delhi Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.