From the field to the cooking pot, the price of this mundane but essential commodity changes at least six hands and the price jumps two-and-a-half times. Of these six middlemen, five are located in a three-km vicinity in the bustling streets of the Walled City.

The minute a farmer sets foot in the Narela or Najafgarh mandi, commission agents, traders, brokers, mill owners and more commission agents get cracking.

The stock of dal is auctioned to wholesalers. The bidding begins at the minimum price fixed by the Government -- which in the case of dal is between Rs 800 and 900 per quintal or Rs 8-9 per kg.

Arhar dal, which is currently the costliest as rains destroyed a huge chunk of the crop, is being auctioned at Rs 25 per kg. The dal costs the consumer Rs 44.

At the mandi itself, three or four per cent commission on the crop is added on. Auctioningagents charge a two per cent commission and one per cent is paid to the mandi. The wholesalers sell the crop to mill owners, who pay one per cent commission to the wholesaler. The amount that this four per cent translates into is paid by the mill owner.

Arhar dal, auctioned at Rs 25 per kg at the mandi, costs Rs 26 by the time it is ready to be carted out.

Justifying the need for so many middlemen, an auctioning agent at the Narela Mandi, Mukat Behari, says, ``There are cases in which the mill owners bid for the dal themselves without the intervention of the wholesaler. But since the loose dal has to be picked up and packed in bags before it can be taken to the mills, it is easier to use the services of the wholesaler, who has a shop and labourers available for this work. Moreover, when the transaction is done through the wholesaler, he has to make an on-the-spot payment, which suits the mill owners just fine.''

At the mill, dal is dehusked, cleaned, split and polished. Almost a third of the crop islost while dehusking. A mill owner, Gauri Shankar Bansal, says, ``We sell it as cattle feed at the rate of Rs 5 per kg. This raises the price of the dal substantially.''

A kg of dal has therefore become dearer by Rs 6. To this, add labour charges and the cost of operating the machines, and the price goes up by another Rs 2. The price tag now reads Rs 34 per kg.

The processed dal is now sent to another set of wholesalers, who sit amidst sacks of dals in small dusty shops in the three major wholesale centres in the city located in the Walled City: Naya Bazar, Shraddhanand Market and Khari Baoli.

Transportation and labour charges for loading and unloading the dal add 10 paise to a kg of pulses. The wholesalers do not buy the dal; they charge the mill owners a 1.75 per cent commission for sourcing retailers. At this stage, the retailer should be able to buy the dal for Rs 35 a kg. However, wholesalers fix the arhar dal price between Rs 38 to 41 a kg, depending on the quality.

This is where the retailer,or the friendly neighbuorhood shopkeeper, comes in. The consumer does not know what the quality of dal he buys is, or whether he buys two grades and mixes them. According to wholesalers in the market, both practices are comon.

The retailer, at his end, charges 1.75 per cent as commission and transportation and labour charges, hiking the price to Rs 41.82 per kg. He, however, sells the dal at prices between Rs 44 to 50 per kg, depending on the locality. The retailers attribute the last five per cent hike to shop rent and the fact that, ``they have to earn something too''.

A consumer shells out this five per cent as well as all the other commissions on every visit to the grocer.