The prices of several vegetables dropped on Thursday across Calcutta and Salt Lake with members of the state-appointed task force visiting markets to monitor the rates and warn retailers against unnecessarily hiking prices.

Brinjals, which sold for ₹120-150 a kilo till Wednesday, was available in the range of ₹80-100 at Lake Market and the Gariahat market on Thursday.

Green chillies sold for ₹90-100 a kilo during the day at the two markets as well as the markets in Maniktala and Sealdah. The price varied between ₹120 and ₹150 over the past few days.

Tomatoes sold for ₹70 a kilo at the market in Salt Lake’s CK Block, down from ₹80 a kilo.

The prices of pointed gourd and bitter gourd were static at ₹40 and ₹80 a kilo, respectively. The prices of Chandramukhi and Jyoti potatoes, too, remained the same — ₹40 and ₹35, respectively.

Retailers and government officials said vegetable prices are coming down mainly because of an increase in local production.

"The prices of some vegetables have started dropping. At the Maniktala market, the prices of certain vegetables dipped almost 20 per cent," said Rabindranath Koley, a member of the task force.

Members of the force visited the Maniktala and College Street markets on Friday. On Thursday, they inspected Koley Market in Sealdah and VIP Market in Kankurgachi.

On Tuesday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed the task force to visit markets as reports of spiralling prices of vegetables poured in.

Two days later, while visiting the Maniktala market in north Calcutta, the task force members asked some vendors selling capsicum at ₹120 a kilo to bring the price down by ₹20. The members also warned retailers about police action if they are found hoarding vegetables to artificially boost demand and hike prices.

A retailer in the market in Salt Lake’s CK Block said prices have started coming down because locally produced vegetables are reaching the markets.

“Production of local vegetables is picking up. We are expecting prices to go down further in the next few days,” said Mahanta Pramanik, the seller in the CK Block market.

Officials in the state's agri-marketing department and several wholesalers attributed the slide to the arrival of vegetables from North and South 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Nadia.

The flow of vegetables from the field to the market is set to get a boost with the arrival of the monsoon.

"Brinjals have started reaching the wholesale markets from Bagda and Taherpur in North 24-Parganas and Nadia. Green chillies are coming from Basirhat in North 24-Parganas," said Kamal Dey, a task force member and president of the West Bengal Vegetable Vendors’ Association.

"The harvest of ladies' fingers in South 24-Parganas is picking up and the price will fall in the next few days."

Across markets, retailers said the rising price of most vegetables had hit their sales hard as buyers chose to cut down their daily consumption.

"Vegetables are perishable. A retailer makes more when he sells in bigger volumes. But now customers are buying vegetables in smaller quantities," said Chittaranjan Saha, a vegetable retailer at the Gariahat market. "Who wants to buy a kilo of brinjal for ₹80?"