Government acts against hoarders, over 5,800 tonnes of pulses seized
New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday said action against hoarders and black marketers has been stepped up and the state governments have seized over 5,800 tonnes of pulses in five states over the last few months.
This is basically aimed at boosting supply and bringing down prices of tur dal that have shot up to Rs 200 per kg. The Cabinet Secretary today reviewed the prices, production, procurement and availability of pulses in a meeting with secretaries of Consumer Affairs, Agriculture, Commerce and other ministries.
The meeting also reviewed the action taken by state governments to prevent hoarding of pulses, besides discussing about progress of sale of imported pulses at subsidised rates in Delhi and other states.
"We had directed state governments to enforce the Essential Commodities Act more stringently. As a result, some state governments have carried out surprised inspections and seized large quantities of pulses," Consumer Affairs Secretary C Vishwanath told PTI after the meeting.
According to the Consumer Affairs Ministry, over 5,800 tonnes of pulses have been seized in five states in the last few months. Of the entire amount, 2,549 tonnes have been seized from Telangana, 2,295 tonnes from Madhya Pradesh, 600 tonnes from Andhra Pradesh, 360 tonnes from Karnataka and 10 quintals from Maharashtra, the ministry's data showed.
"Raids are being carried out even today at places like Mysore and Gulbarga in Karnataka and also in Tamil Nadu. These measures have started showing results," the official said.
Stating that the Centre is closely monitoring the steps being taken against hoarders by state governments, the official said, "All these measures are expected to improve supply of pulses and moderate prices. “Besides de-hoarding measures, state governments have started withdrawing stock holding limit exemptions given to pulse importers, exporters, licensed food processors and large departmental retailers, following the central government’s direction.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have already issued orders in this regard, another Consumer Affairs Ministry official said. Singh referred to figures to highlight declining trend of production of pulses in Bihar in recent time.
Pulses production in Bihar was 5.43 lakh tonnes in 2012-13, which declined to 5.22 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 and further went down to 4.20 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, he said.
“This shows that the Nitish government neither showed any interest in taking steps/measures for increasing pulses output nor took the benefit of the Agriculture Ministry's scheme meant to contain the prices of pulses," he added.
Paswan claimed that a future NDA government in Bihar would take appropriate measures to bring the prices of pulses below Rs 100 a kg. "Prices of pulses would come below Rs 100 a kg after November 10," he said.
Paswan accused the Bihar government of neither fixing stock limit nor taking action under Essential Commodities Act and Prevention of Black Marketing Act to put check on hoarders. He alleged that the Bihar government was "hand-in-glove with hoarders".
Paswan gave details of action initiated by the Union government to contain prices of pulses. He listed efforts like keeping import duty at zero, banon export of pulses, increasing minimum support price (MSP) of arhar by Rs 75 per quintal along with a bonus of Rs 200 aquintal on it.
The Centre recently decided to create a ‘buffer stock' for dal, he said. Holding that prices of rice, wheat and sugar are under control, the Food and Consumers Affairs Minister said that pulses and edible oil have always witnessed a gap in production and demand in the country. Paswan said that the Centre has floated tenders to import 10,000 tonnes of unmilled pulses to meet the shortage of domestic supplies.
Out of 10,000 tonnes of order placed for pulses import, 4,500 tonnes have been imported in the country, he said. “Out of 4500 tonnes of imported pulses, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have taken 1800 tonnes and 250 tonnes respectively" and "no other states, including Bihar lifted anything from this imported stock,” he said.
