An unprecedented jump in retail prices of sugar is a reminder of how Govt inaction can quickly turn a price rise of an essential kitchen item into a national concern

Sugar is not a luxury. It sweetens the morning chai at a highway dhaba and the payasam at a wedding feast alike. So when the price of this democratic commodity jumps nearly 40 per cent in a month — from Rs 45-48 a kilogram in mid-July to Rs 65 by late August, UP’s ex-factory rate crossing a record Rs 5,400 a quintal — it isn’t a market footnote but a kitchen-table crisis.

The Centre ordered physical verification of stocks at every mill on July 24, completed it by August 14, then sat on the numbers as retail prices kept climbing. Only around August 22 — a month into the spike — did the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food........

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