PM and Finance Minister have taken steps to control onion prices: M J Akbar

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson M.J. Akbar said today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have taken all necessary steps to control the onion price rise.

"The PM and Finance Minister are very serious, administrative decisions have already been taken which will impact the market soon. There are several reasons for the price rise. There might be variables in the price rise, but the situation will be brought under control by the administrative steps taken," said Akbar.

In 2013-14, India harvested 19.3 million metric tons of onions, which is 15 per cent more than the previous year. This is the latest estimates put out by the agriculture ministry and may go up or down by a couple of percentage points.

However, wholesale prices of onions jumped up by 20 to 50 per cent across various cities in the first fortnight of June this year.

Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon in Maharashtra's Nashik District are two of the biggest wholesale markets in the country, and prices were quoted at 22 to 28 per cent higher than a fortnight ago.

In all, the top 10 onion markets in the country, which account for 55 per cent of all onion arrivals, prices had shot up, except in Delhi.

Between 2010 and 2014, there were five spikes in onion prices.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called upon state governments to check hoarding, while Prime Minister Modi has met ministers and senior bureaucrats to discuss strategies to bring inflation, which is at a five month high, down.