Chai pe Jhagda! This hill town in Kerala wants its tea cheap

The small hill town of Rajakkad, just an hour away from Munnar, the scenic tea county of Kerala, is witnessing an interesting people's struggle. They want the hotels and restaurants in the area to roll back a steep raise in the price of tea served. 

Last month, the hotel owners in the locality raised the price of a cup of tea from Rs.7 to Rs.10! The price of snacks and other dishes served in the hotels also spiked unilaterally. The price hike was to the tune of 20% to 25%. Snacks cost Rs.10 and a meal 50! 

The people of the hill town were not ready to accept it and start protesting in no time. Stiff protests forced hotels to shut down temporarily. Interventions of panchayat authorities failed to find a solution. 

Eventually, hotel owners agreed to reduce the price of all items except popular ones like tea, parotta and urad dal fritters (Uzunnu vada or medu vada). 

However, protestors were not ready to bite the partial roll back.  "There is no justification for a sudden increase in the price of food items. The price of consumer goods has come down recently," Anil, a member of action committee told Matrubhumi News. 

Hoteliers counter the protestors saying that the labour cost and prices of consumer goods have gone high. 
"We are going through a rough patch. The price of consumer goods and cooking gas has increased manifold. Labour charges have also gone high. But the price of food served in hotels has not revised in the past  four years ," Mathew, hotel owner, said. 

The action committee do not buy this argument and is planning to go ahead with  protests till hoteliers provide food and beverages at the earlier price.   

Will this storm over a cuppa of tea spread across the state? Let's wait and watch.

• Tea price hike
• Rajakkad protest
• Munnar