Chandigarh:
Concerned over skyrocketing prices of onion, Haryana government has planned to impose stock holding limit on the commodity in the state as part of its efforts to control rates of kitchen staple.
The UT Chandigarh Administration is also mulling over supplying onion at 'No Profit and No Loss' rate to consumers through low-cost stalls and mobile vans.
"We have proposed to impose stock holding limit on onions to be stored by wholesaler and retailer (to check rising prices of onion)," a senior official of Haryana Food and Supplies Department told PTI in Chandigarh today.
The state Food and Supplies department has proposed to impose stock holding limit of 50 quintals of onion for wholesaler and 20 quintals for retailer.
The decision on imposing stock holding limit will be taken by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as the file in this regard has been sent to the Chief Minister office.
"Once the stock holding limit is fixed, then enforcement action will be taken against any hoarder of onion," he said.
Yesterday, the Centre had asked all states to take stringent action against hoarders and impose stock holding limits in the wake of spiraling prices of onions.
Meanwhile, UT Chandigarh Administration has planned to sell onions at 'No Profit and No Loss' rates to consumers.
"We are planning to sell onions through low cost stalls and mobile vans at no profit and no loss prices," UT Chandigarh Food, Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Joint Director, Danish Ashraf said in Chandigarh.
"We will soon come out with an action plan in this regard," he further said.
Onions will be sold at almost wholesale rate, official said.
Last year, also UT Chandigarh Administration sold onions at 'No Profit and No Loss' prices which was quite popular in the city.
Asked about action being taken against hoarders, Ashraf said, "a system has been put in place to gather intelligence about any hoarding being done by traders to take action.
Besides, people who find onion hoarding taking place anywhere can also lodge complaint with concerned authorities."
However, the Chandigarh Administration has found that there was very less possibility of storing onions in large quantity as rent charges for storage purposes was very high in the city.
Meanwhile, onions imported from Afghanistan have landed in the Chandigarh city where it is being sold at Rs 45-55 per kg in wholesale market.
"People are not keen on buying onions from Afghanistan as they are quite big in size weighing around 600-700 gram. Hotels are mainly buying imported onion," said Rajinder Kumar, Secretary, and Chandigarh Market Committee.
Onions, which mainly come from Maharashtra, are being sold at Rs 65-70 per kg in retail market in Chandigarh, he further said. The estimated per day supply of onions in Chandigarh is pegged at about 4,000 quintals, Mr Kumar said.