Govt to boost onion supply from buffer stock, asks police to take action against hoarders

The government on Friday said it will sell onion, pulses and edible oil in the open market from its buffer stocks and take immediate action against hoarders creating artificial shortages.

The retail price of onion in Delhi ranges between Rs 30 and 40 per kg. The wholesale price in the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi in Maharashtra was recorded at Rs 14.76 per kg on Thursday. The price rose after rains disrupted supplies as well as due to damaged crop in major-producing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

"The government is keeping an eye on rise in prices of pulses and edible oil in the past few days. The main reason is artificial shortage created by hoarders. The government will take immediate action against them," Food and Consumer Affair Minister Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted.

The government has sufficient stocks of pulses and oil seeds, he said.

Paswan added that he has written a letter to the agriculture ministry to sell pulses and oil seeds procured by Nafed in the open market, so that consumers can get these food items at reasonable prices.

The government is also supplying pulses through ration shops, he said and added that it may fix stock limit on pulses if required.

Meanwhile, the Department of Consumers Affairs said in a statement that it has reviewed the prices of essential commodities, such as onions, pulses and oilseeds, with all stakeholders under the chairmanship of its Secretary Avinash K Srivastava.

"The committee decided to substantially increase the daily supply of onions from government buffer to Delhi and directed Nafed to release the stock from PSF (price stabilisation fund) buffer so as to ensure improved availability at reasonable rates," the statement added.

Import of onion is duty-free under the open general licence and currently, there is sufficient stock of onions available in the government buffer, the department said, adding that supply of onion can be further enhanced if needed.

"Police representatives from Delhi and various states around Delhi were also present at the meeting and they were asked to hold regular meetings to ensure seamless check on hoarding in Delhi-NCR specifically and in their respective states generally," the statement also said.

The police officials from the neighbouring states were also asked to share the data available with them on hoarders and profiteers for more effective inter-state enforcement, it added.

The committee directed the police officials to check the entry points around Delhi-NCR to ensure that supplies are not held up at the border to create artificial shortage, it added.

Earlier this week, the department had decided to cap the retail price of onion at Safal (a Mother Dairy outlet) at Rs 23.90 per kg (for Grade A variety). Mother Dairy has over 400 retail outlet in the Delhi-NCR.

Onion has been a politically-sensitive commodity. The Bharatiya Janata Party had lost state Delhi Assembly elections after the onion prices rose sharply in 1998.