Pulses worth Rs 50 crore seized in raids on Kalaburagi hoarders

KALABURAGI: Continuing their raids on hoarders, the special teams constituted by the deputy commissioner today seized 19,156 quintals of pulses in the district.

According to sources in the Food and Civil Supplies department, pulses such as red gram, green gram, black gram etc were seized during 21 raids conducted on various godowns in Kalaburagi city as well as Chittapur taluk.

In all, the administration has so far seized pulses, mainly red gram, worth over Rs 50 crores stored illegally mainly in the state owned warehouses during the last one week.

The district administration has stepped up raids on red gram mills, godowns, and premises of wholesale traders and kirana merchants following directions from the state government which has drawn flak from the Centre for doing little to take action against the hoarders to contain the spiraling prices of pulses.

According to Deputy Director of Food and Civil Supplies A.T. Jayappa, the teams raided unit-I of the state warehouses at Kapnur Industrial Area here and seized 37,900 quintals of pulses worth over Rs 30 crore. They raided unit-II of the state warehouse godown and seized 15,414 quintals of pulses worth Rs 13 crore.

According to Mr Jayappa, these pulses had been stored illegally by 375 traders since January creating an artificial shortage in the market.