New Delhi: The prices of potato and onions shot up in retail markets of the capital on Monday with reports of rains in Punjab affecting potato output and post-cyclonic rains  damaging onion crops in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Residents of the National Capital Region however blamed the price hike on unscrupulous middlemen and wholesale merchants who have been giving lame excuses in order to make a killing on the market.

The price of one kg of potato was being sold for Rs 40-50 in Delhi, while the price of a kilo of onion was being sold for Rs 85 to Rs 90.

Normally during autumn, wholesale markets in Delhi used to overflow with potatoes from Punjab, but because of failed crops due to unseasonal rains, the supply has been far less this time, said a wholesale trader.

Onion on Monday reached its record level in 15 years. It touched Rs 60 a kg in the wholesale market.  In 1998, onion had reached Rs 90 a kg denting the image of the then BJP-led NDA government. Traders at Azadpur sabzi mandi said, onion was sold at the wholesale rate of Rs 60-65 a kg, and this is expected to shoot up, with poor supply from Nashik.

Wholesale traders said, they had been selling onions at lower rates in the capital on directions of the government for the last two months, but with the  Election Model Code of Conduct in force, the hands of Delhi government are now tied.

Metharam Kriplai, president, chamber of Azadpur Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association, said, “it is true that rains have affected the output of vegetables, but the government can import onions to bring down the prices.

Forward trading is also one big reason for hike in prices of edible commodities, and the government should evolve a policy to restrain that.”

Rajkumar Bhatia, secretary of the association, said: “Government appears to believe in statistics only. The fact is that cultivation is done on land far less than the area that show up in government statistics.

That’s why the government’s estimates about output of agricultural produces prove incorrect. Prices rise when there is a mismatch between demand and supply.”