If office-bearers of the newly formed Grahak Suraksha Jagruti Mandal are to be believed, they have already started practising what they will preach from Monday. They say they know their onions and will ensure that many others do so as well.

``I had only daal and rice for lunch today'', says S Christian, an office-bearer of the Grahak Mandal. He is all prepared to change his food habits and lead a spartan life at least so far as food is concerned for the next few days.

``We will request people to avoid expensive vegetables and bring hoarders and blackmarketeers to their knees. If nobody buys anything from them for a few days, they will be forced to bring down their prices'', he says, echoing the mood of other office-bearers.

Though the mandal has a larger agenda, circumstances prevent it from doing much apart from focusing on vegetables. Office-bearers reportedly phoned up Bangalore to learn that most vegetables were selling for just Rs 10 a kilo there.

Corporator Suresh Varodia, one of the 11 office-bearers of the mandal, said he'd discovered during a trip to Matheran that onions were available for less than Rs 15 per kg, while the rates quoted in Surat was at least two to three times more, depending on the locality.

Varodia said his family had stopped buying green vegetables for the last few days. ``We will create awareness among people to follow suit. One doesn't die if you doesn't eat vegetables for a few days. Wait till the prices come down that is what we are going to tell our neighbours and others in the localities where we stay'', he says.

``When there was panic buying of salt we moved around in the Udhna area. When shop-keepers told us they had adequate supplies, we made them hang notices outside their shops. It worked,'' he claims. The mandal has decided to approach media to take its message far and across.

One of the mandal's radical ideas is to ferret out huge stocks lying with hoarders. ``If we come across such traders we will inform the district officials and have their godowns raided'', warns Varodia.

Also on the anvil is organising seminars where reputed persons would be invited on lecture people on virtues of keeping away from expensive things.

The mandal claims to have already despatched two persons to Padra village near Vadodara, where vegetables are reportedly cheap. Mandal office-bearers say they have also spoken to a few transporters who will purchase vegetables from such places and sell them in Surat.