Tamil Nadu govt doubles its onion procurement

Govt to sell through state-run rates at subsidized rate

Tamil Nadu Government has decided to double its procurement of onions from the market and sell it through its own vegetables and fruits outlets at a cheaper price to the public. It may be noted, while at the organised retail outlets and other shops, onions are sold at around Rs 75-80 a kg, Tamil Nadu is selling at a price of Rs 30.

In a reply at the State Assembly today, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa blamed the Central Government's policies for the price increase of essential products and the recent being the Onion.

Jayalalithaa said, at the wholesale Koyambedu market, which is the key source for vegetables and flowers, big onion is costing Rs 60 a kg, while small onion, referred as sambar onion, is costing around Rs 75-80. She noted, on the organised retail chains it cost around Rs 70 and Rs 95 respectively.

However, according to the Chief Minister, to ease the burden of the public the sate Government is selling big onion at Rs 30 and small onion at a price of Rs 60 kg, through the State run ‘Pannai Pasumai Nugarvor Kootturavu Kadai, which sells fresh vegetables.

At present these state-run outlets are selling six tonne of big onions and one tonne of small onions every day and this will be doubled, said the Chief Minister.

This initiative is aimed at beating the high inflationary trend and the State administration anticipates the prices of vegetables would come down in supermarkets.

She also compared the prevailing rates of onion in other states including Bangalore (Rs 58 a kg), Hyderabad (Rs 60), Kerala (Rs 70), Delhi (Rs65), Mumbai (Rs 70), Kolkata (Rs70), Bihar (Rs 80) and Assam (Rs 78).

Tamil Nadu's demand for onion is catered by Maharastra, Karanataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Onion arrival from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh one of the main sources for Tamil Nadu, was affected due to the recent agitations, due to Government's proposal to separate Telangana. The Koyambedu market which used to get 70 lorries of onion from this district in Andhra Pradesh is now getting only 50 loads.

Meanwhile traders in the market said that proactive stance by the state government and the CID's food cell, which is monitoring delivery trucks, is also helping to keep the price of onions stable.

Reports added, the price had spiralled towards the latter half of the year because of hoarding and due to patchy rainfall in some places and heavy showers ruining crops in other onions growing regions. The traders hopes that the prices will revert to normal once the winter harvest arrives in the market.