Traders will 'pay' for jacking up prices: Sabitha

Prices of vegetables, provisions and milk sky-rocketed to the discomfiture of consumers after curfew was relaxed in the Old City on Thursday.

Essential comodities including medicines were short in supply even as Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy announced that the government will ensure supply of essentials during the relaxation of curfew in the violence-hit areas.

According to sources, the Home Minister reportedly stated that the government would make arrangements to supply vegetables and milk packets through ryot bazars to contain exploitation of traders in the riot-affected areas.

However, the people, who queued up before the shops in Falaknuma, alleged the government had failed to supply vegetables and essential commodities during the lax hours of curfew.

The buyers were in for a shock when the price of milk was doubled and vegetables prices went up  manifold in many parts. They urged the police and officials to take stringent action against those traders who jacked up prices of commodities.

Home Minister later told newsmen that the government supplied 20 truckloads of vegetables and 90,000 litres of milk in the curfew-bound areas. Four traders were arrested for selling commodities by raising their prices. Stringent action would be taken against trader who inflate prices in the trouble-torn areas, she warned.