Prices of pulses have nearly doubled in the last four months, retailers say.
In the vegetarian Sharma household, especially for their six-year-old son Ayush, dal was once an everyday affair. Today, it is made every second day.
"We have now started having dal on alternative days. Dal is important for us as its main source of protien I have a growing son at home so we have to have dal. I hope the government takes steps to control prove rise as dal is very important and part of staple diet especially of the poor," homemaker Monica Sharma says.
Prices of pulses have nearly doubled in the last four months, retailers say. The most widely used source of protein among vegetarians, the humble dal is now hurting the 'aam aadmi' at Rs 180 per kilogram.
Vitthal Bhanushali, who runs a grocery store in Mumbai's Parel says dal sales have fallen over the last few months. The sudden rise in prices has seen people stop buying dal altogether for a few days.
"We are running this shop for 21 years and this is the highest price of dal we have seen. People have stopped buying and stopped eating dal," he told NDTV.
The Shiv Sena in their mouthpiece Saamna slammed their ally, the BJP, for failing to control prices. "Price rise had become a noose around the common man's neck. For the common man even dal and roti is now a dream. The aam aadmi is asking if they voted you to power for this. It had become fashionable to mock then PM Manmohan Singh for price rise. But a year on, the new government hasn't controlled inflation with a magic wand," the editorial said.
One of the causes of the sudden spurt in prices seems to be a technical glitch at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Raigad district of Maharashtra.
Sources say pulses are still a commodity on which excise duties have to be paid even though a government order removing duties on pulses has been sent. A malfunction in the Customs Department servers is reportedly to blame.
Traders say they do not want to pick up stocks at higher prices with excise duties.
Vipul Shah, a wholesale trader, says, "It's the mistake of the authorities. Now the stocks of dal that is imported have been in the warehouses at the port for days. Due to this, there's scarcity of goods, the prices have risen from Rs 80 to Rs 180."