Challenged by onion crisis, government on Thursday indicated that it would give much-needed impetus towards developing a mechanism of cold chains to ensure swift movement of vegetables and fruits in areas of short supply even as prices did finally show some signs of softening in major retail markets.
In Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, onion prices dropped by Rs 10 per kg because of 52% fall in wholesale prices in last three days following steps unveiled by the Centre to boost supply.
In Delhi, the government is selling onion at Rs 40 per kg through retail outlets of Nafed, Mother Dairy and National Consumer Co-operative Federation which comes as a relief from the skyrocketing prices of Rs 80 per kg earlier this week. The government had indefinitely banned exports of onion and slashed the import duty to make supplies more smooth.
According to data compiled by National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), onion prices fell by 37% in Lasalgaon to Rs 4,000 per quintal from Rs 6,299 on December 20. In Pimpalgaon, the fall was by 52% to Rs 3,031 per quintal from Rs 6,273 a quintal in the review period. ?Supply of onions increased by 300 tonne today against yesterday’s 900 tonne,? Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board chairman Brahm Yadav said. Chief minister Shiela Dixit assured that onion prices will come down in the next few days as the government has taken measures to bring down the rates.
The Union Cabinet secretary also assured that onion prices would soften soon. ?We will certainly do whatever required to bring down onion prices,? KM Chandrasekhar said after reviewing the situation with the secretaries of agriculture and consumer affairs ministries. Nafed deferred its earlier decision to import onion from Pakistan because prices had started to soften. ?Earlier, we had decided to send our officers to Pakistan for importing 2,200 tonne of onion. However, as the prices of commodity has started to decline, we have now deferred plan to import,? Nafed chairman Bijender Singh said.
He said Nafed had started the process of importing onion by itself and written to state governments stating the cooperative is ready to provide any amount of onions required. Himachal Pradesh agreeded to supply onions at Rs 40 per kg to Nafed. Railways, too, decided to speed up movement of onion cargoes to ensure fast supplies. Elsewhere, UPA-allay and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, became the first allay of the ruling coalition to blame the government for its failure to tackle price rise. In Shillong, the administration has fixed the price of onion at Rs 68 per kg and has urged the traders not to sell above this rate to provide some succor to citizens during Christmas.
In Delhi, combined teams from enforcement department, food and civil supplies department and development department conducted raids at various places including Azadpur wholesale market to check hoarding. A control room has been set up by food and supplies department to monitor the rates of onions in wholesale and retail markets of Delhi and to disseminate information to public in this regard.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra government has decided to conduct raids across Mumbai and other parts of the state if required to flush out hoarders and prevent onion prices from escalating further. State agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said these raids would help bring onions into the open market.