UP Vegetable Vendor Hires Bouncers to ‘Protect’ Tomatoes Amid Skyrocketing Prices | WATCH

As tomato prices have skyrocketed amid the Monsoon season, a vegetable vendor in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi has found a way to avoid arguments and violence as people struggle to buy this Indian diet staple.

The vendor, Ajay Fauji — who is also a Samajwadi Party (SP) worker — has hired two bouncers to stand in front of his vegetable cart to keep customers away from taking tomatoes or arguing over the prices.

In a video, the bouncers are seeing shooing customers away who are trying to touch the tomatoes. Placards reading “Kripya tamatar ko mat chuhe,” (kindly don’t touch the tomatoes)

According to reports, Fauji had earlier cut a tomato-shaped cake in Varanasi on the birthday of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

Talking to news agency PTI, Fauji said that he hired the bouncers because the tomatoes price is too high. “People are indulging in violence and even looting tomatoes. Since we have tomatoes in the shop, we don’t want any arguments, so we have bouncers here,” he said.

“Tomatoes are selling for Rs 160 per kg. People are buying 50 or 100 gms,” the vendor,” he added.

Akhilesh Yadav later reposted this video and took a dig at the Yogi Adityanath-led ruling party and said that the “BJP should give ‘Z PLUS’ security to tomatoes.”

This comes as tomato prices in various parts of the country continue to be on the rise, with the rates touching as high as Rs 250 per kg. Tomatoes are selling in the range of Rs 200-Rs 250 per kg in the retail market in Uttarakhand.

In Gangotri Dham, the price of per-kg tomatoes is Rs 250, while it is selling between Rs 180 and Rs 200 in Uttarkashi.

“Tomatoes have become dearer in the region all of a sudden. Consumers are bearing the brunt of the rising prices of tomatoes in Uttarkashi. People are not even willing to buy them. In Gangotri, Yamunotri, tomatoes are going at Rs 200 to Rs 250 per kg,” a vegetable seller told ANI.

According to traders, tomato prices are on the rise as their production got hit due to heavy rains in some growing areas and heat waves last month.

Among metros, retail tomato prices remained highest at Rs 152 per kg in Kolkata, followed by Rs 120 per kg in Delhi, Rs 117 per kg in Chennai and Rs 108 per kg in Mumbai.

According to the latest report by Crisil, the average cost of a vegetable and a non-vegetable thali, which were on a decline since October 2022, increased in May and June on a sequential basis following soaring tomato and other vegetable prices.

“The cost of veg and non-veg thali alike, on the decline since October 2022, nosed up on a sequential basis in May and further in June 2023. Elevated prices of tomato month-on-month in June led to this increase,” Crisil’s monthly indicator of food plate cost revealed.