Plenty of buyers were seen in the dank alleys while sellers were busy selling and arranging their commodities.

When this correspondent walked into the market, retail sellers were selling potato at Tk 10 per kg while it was Tk 8.50 at wholesale market -- only 20 feet away. Retail price of tomato was Tk 20 while the wholesale price was Tk 17. Retail price of onion was Tk 15 while the wholesale price was Tk 14. Gourd was selling at Tk 17 apiece while wholesale price was Tk 15. Green chilli was selling at Tk 32 while the wholesale price was Tk 28. Beans were selling at Tk 14 while the wholesale price was Tk 11. Retail price of eggplant was Tk 10 while the wholesale price was Tk 7. Both retail and wholesale price of ginger was Tk 30. Large Papaya was selling at Tk 50 and small ones at Tk 20.

Before the present caretaker government took over, retail prices in kitchen markets were up to 70 percent higher than wholesale prices.

Vegetables coming mostly from Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Comilla, Kushtia and other parts of the country contain chemicals -- 'medicine' is what it is called by the traders.

These 'medicines' are injurious to health and change the natural taste of the produce, said a vegetable trader.

"Here you won't find a single piece of tomato, eggplant, gourd or any vegetable which does not contain 'medicine'. See these tomatoes? These are sweet and red inside, but these will harm you," The trader added.

"If you spray the 'medicine', it gives a nice colour to the green ones and they seem ripe. The colour is important because people judge the vegetables by their colour," he added.

When asked why he sells vegetables contaminated with chemical although he knows that it is harmful to people, he said he sells vegetable with chemicals because customers only like vegetables with beautiful colours.

At the chicken market, broiler chickens were selling at Tk 100 per kg and layer chickens at Tk 85 per kg while wholesale price was Tk 75 per kg. At the fish market, lobsters were being sold at Tk 800 to 900 per kg while the wholesale price was Tk 750 to 780.

Fresh fish from the Meghna are tastier and a bit pricier as well, claimed sellers. Retail price of a Meghna ruhi were selling at Tk 450 to 600 and wholesale price was Tk 400. Burmese ruhi was priced Tk 120 while wholesale price was Tk 110 per kg.

Boal (pike) was priced Tk 350 to 550 and wholesale price was Tk 340 to 400. Hilsha Tk 4,000 per hali (4 fishes), wholesale Tk 1,200 to 3,800. Katol was selling at Tk 220 whereas wholesale price was Tk 160.

Beef was being sold at Tk 160, mutton Tk 230 per kg.

At rice section of the market, prices of Miniket and Najirshail were for sale at Tk 27 and Tk 24 respectively.

Moktar Hossain, a rice trader, made a couple of suggestions to help reduce the price of rice -- subsidise rice and allow all licensed rice stores to buy directly from government warehouses.

"At present, only one dealer from this market is allowed to buy from the government warehouses. But if all of us are allowed to buy directly, the price would go down," Moktar added.

"TV and newspaper reports say that transportation, fuel and other costs raise prices of commodities, but these costs will always be there because we have to transport the goods if we want to sell it. A very serious reason behind the increasing price is reduction of per capita land due to considerable increase of population coupled with significant decrease in production capacity of land," said Moktar.

"If the government can subsidise electricity, gas and water, then why not rice?" asked another rice trader.

A betel leaf seller was sitting in front of a price board installed by Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) next to one of the entrances of the market where not a single price was written on it.

"Last week they [DCC] wrote some prices on the board, but it was washed away in the rain," he said.