Centre sets out to tackle hoarders

The central government has called a meeting of the director general of police of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab on Thursday to have better coordination among states in cracking down on hoarders of essential commodities and established trade cartels.

The meeting, which will also be attended by officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau, will discuss how to break the network of traders who form cartels to artificially push up prices.

It has been observed that traders sometimes shift their inventories or stocks to neighbouring states to escape punitive action and a joint-action will stop that

"Commodity prices generally show a rising trend between July and October which coincides with the peak festival season. Though, there are many reasons for price rise, but hoarding and black-marketing is a big factor," a senior official said

As per official data, India's consumer price-based inflation touched a 19 month high of 5.76 per cent in May, driven primarily by food inflation.

Retail food inflation or the consumer food price index rose 7.55 per cent, compared to 6.40 per cent in April and 4.80 per cent in May 2015.

Among the various food categories, pulses showed a year-over-year increase of 31.6 per cent in May.