Andhra Pradesh Govt failed to maintain sufficient stock of onions: Lanka Dinakar

BJP leader Lanka Dinakar on Tuesday hit out at the Andhra Pradesh government over the rising price of onions saying that when the state had stocks in mid-August it should have kept them as a buffer to be used now.

Speaking to ANI, Dinakar said, "Onion prices are rising across the nation for the past month. It happened due to a huge gap between supply and demand. In the mid of August, in Kurnool when there was an output of onions available then why didn't the State Government pay attention to maintain buffer stocks."

He further said, "Onions from Maharashtra and Gujarat generally come to the market in November to serve till February and March, we all are aware of the fact that the production of onions in Maharashtra was adversely affected due to natural calamities. In such a case, the Andhra Pradesh government failed to maintain stocks to stabilize prices in at least the state only."

He added, "Union Government, upon the request from the various State Governments, stopped the exports of onions in September. The central government also decided to import 1.5 lakh tonnes of onion from Egypt. A total of 20,000 tonnes will be brought here by next week.