Delhi govt mobile vans start selling onions at Rs 50-55/kg

Under attack from the opposition over skyrocketing onion prices, Delhi government today started selling the kitchen staple through 125 mobile vans across the city at rates of Rs 50-55 per kg.
Food and Civil Supplies department officials said that the mobile vans would be selling onions at over 500 points across the city.
Rajendra Sharma, president of the Delhi Agricultural Produce Market Committee, which operates the Azadpur wholesale fruit and vegetable market, said the city received a supply of 2,000 tonnes of onion today against the average daily consumption of around 900 tonnes.
"There is no problem of availability of onions in Delhi. Retail prices will definitely come down as supply has improved significantly," he said.

The retail rate for onions continued to remain between Rs 80-90 at various markets across the city.
With high onion prices threatening to become a hot political issue ahead of the December 4 Assembly polls, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had taken a number of initiatives, including directly procuring the bulb from Maharashtra and Rajasthan, to stabilise rates.

Dikshit, who had come to power after defeating the then BJP government in 1998 by riding on the high onion prices issue, had said on Saturday that the government would sell onions at Rs 55/kg in the city from Monday.
Election Commission had on Friday given its nod to Delhi government's request to distribute onions at cheaper rates.

Last week, Dikshit had met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Food Minister KV Thomas and sought their help in improving the onion supply in Delhi.
BJP had been voted out of power following its loss in the 1998 Assembly polls in the city. Its defeat is attributed to high onion prices.
To mitigate the effect of soaring onion prices, Delhi government had last month started selling onions at reasonable rates through 50 mobile vans in the city, but discontinued the move when prices came down.