Slamming the Sheila Dikshit government, Delhi BJP today said its failure in controlling sky-rocketing prices of commodities has turned this year's Diwali into a "Black Diwali."
"With prices of onions still hovering around Rs 85-90 per kg and prices of other essential commodities and vegetables showing a steep hike of 200-300 per cent recently, every family in the city is affected," Delhi BJP President Vijay Goel said.
Goel added that the "cosmetic measures" announced by the Congress government are inadequate and not benefiting anyone.
"Just 350 Safal outlets and 150 mobile onion vans are insufficient to cater the needs of 1.67 crore people of Delhi.
"The mobile onion vans remained invisible and have brought no relief to people, and bad quality onions were sold at Safal outlets," said Goel.
Goel alleged that onions are being continuously exported, while Delhi and rest of the country are facing acute onion crisis.
"Due to total mismanagement of economy by the Congress government, onions are being continuously exported. The result is that Indian onions are available at Rs 40-45 per kg in Bangladesh while they are selling at a double price in Delhi," he said.
"The Congress government is misleading people through false claims of low production of onions. In fact, according to the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation of the Union Agriculture Ministry, the onion production for 2013-14 is estimated to be 10-15 per cent higher than the previous year," the BJP leader said.
Various agencies had warned the government of impending onion crisis due to gross irregularities in the supply chain.
NAFED wrote letters to the Delhi government, while the Competition Commission of India had asked the Congress led UPA government at the Centre to take effective steps to correct the irregularities of supply chain. But nothing was done, said Goel.
