After tomatoes, soaring dal prices dampen festive fervour

After tomatoes, dal is next in line to bear the brunt of spiralling prices during the festive season.
In the last one week, the price of urad dal has increased by Rs 450-Rs 850 per quintal in the major markets of the country. Along with urad, the prices of moong, masoor and chickpeas (chana) dal have also gone up.
Pulses More Expensive Because Experts opine that pulses will be more expensive because the urad crop has suffered in Madhya Pradesh due to the incessant rain. At the same time, sowing of pulses has also been estimated to be less in this kharif season than last year.
Rajni, a resident of Delhi’s Mandawali area, said that after the spike in vegetable prices, she used to manage with potatoes and lentils as the prices were low, but now pulses have also become expensive.
Earlier, chickpeas (chana) was available at Rs 55-Rs 60 per kg, but now it has gone up to Rs 65-Rs 70 per kg while chickpea lentils (chana dal) is at Rs 90 per kg.
Pulses Market Expert Says Mumbai’s Amit Shukla, a pulses market expert, said that there was a rumour in the market on Tuesday that the government is going to impose a stock limit on pulses for wholesale and retail traders, which led to a one-day fall in the prices of all pulses. But for the last one week, the prices of gram, moong and lentils have been going up.