Delhi seeks Centre's help to prevent onion-hoarding

The Delhi government on Sunday sought the Centre's help in ensuring sufficient supply of onions while preventing its hoarding or black marketing.

Delhi's Food and Civil Supplies minister Asim Ahmed Khan requested the Centre's help in a letter addressed to union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on the issue of availability and price hike of onions in the open market.

Khan wrote that with unseasonal rains partially destroying onions crops and leading to their curtailed availability in wholesale markets at Lasalgaon, Nashik (Maharashtra), "a recent trend in the upward movement of retail prices of onions and shortage has also been reported in the domestic market here".

"Support of the government of India is required to supplement the efforts of Delhi government for ensuring sufficient supplies of onions in order to contain their retail prices in the market," he said.

Khan also requested the central government "to impress upon the onion producing states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh etc. to prevent its hoarding and blackmarketing" which may help in increasing availability in the national capital.

In the letter, he also informed the Centre about Delhi government's efforts to deal with the onion crisis.

To effectively deal with this crisis, the Delhi government has procured onions through Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) and "all possible efforts are being made to supply good quality onions to the residents in the city at a subsidised price of Rs.30 per kg", Khan wrote in the letter.