Nitish flays Centre for blaming states over soaring pulses' price

Coming down heavily at the Centre over soaring pulses' price, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday flayed the Narendra Modi Government for "shamelessly" blaming the states.

"As dal prices soar... Instead of responding to the situation created by their own inaction and incompetence the Government of India shamelessly tries to blame states," Nitish said in a tweet.

"If there was a shortage, dal should have been imported on time," he added.

The Bihar Chief Minister also shared a price list of pulses across the nation; saying 'it suggested that the problem of price was not state-specific, rather national'.

With rise in prices of pulses becoming an issue in the ongoing Bihar elections, the Centre blamed the Nitish government for decline in production of pulses and for not utilising special central fund for price stabilisation.

Earlier Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had taken a swipe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over rising prices of pulses, saying the latter was responsible for it.

"We had written six letters to the state government regarding the price stabilisation fund, which said that the state government should buy the pulses on increased price, but should provide it at minimal cost to the consumers and the margin would be paid back to them by the Centre," Singh told reporters here.

Retail tur dal prices continued to rise as on Monday it shot up to Rs. 200 per kilogram despite government's steps to boost supply and check prices, aggravating consumers' woes.

Till last week, tur was available at Rs 185 per kg in the retail market.

The prices of pulses have increased unabated in the last few months due to a fall in domestic output by about 2 million tonnes (mt) to 17.20 mt in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) owing to deficient monsoon and unseasonal rains.