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Centre braces for drought

Government brought onion and potato under the Essential Commodities Act 1955

New Delhi: Going all out to check ever-increasing prices of essential commodities, the government Wednesday brought onion and potato under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 to curb hoarding.

Fearing a drought-like situation is looming in many areas, it has also set up a monitoring cell in the rural development ministry.

The government also approved the release of an extra 50 lakh tonnes of rice through PDS to give relief to the poor.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While hoarding can only be curbed by fixing stockholding limits by traders, the Centre has left the decision on quantifying limits to states, on the grounds that the situation may differ in different regions. The prescribed stockholding will prohibit individuals from storing onion and potato over this ceiling. The stockholding limits will be in force for the next one year.

Law and communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “With this, we are giving the right to state governments to take stern action against hoarding and blackmarketing.” He said a notification on this will be issued on Thursday. Onion and potato had earlier been under the Essential Commodities Act in 1999-2004.

( Source : dc correspondent )
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