Clean chit to onion traders
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — Giving a clean chit to traders, the Delhi Government informed the Delhi High Court that there was no hoarding of onion. The spiralling prices of this commodity was due to crop failure, the government stated in an affidavit.

The affidavit filed before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice K S Gupta, submitted that the spiralling prices of onion was "not because of hoarding or lack of efforts by the government but due to crop failure and non-availability of the commodity in both national and international markets."

The submissions in the affidavits were contrary to the statements of Delhi Chief Minister, Sushma Swaraj and the Central Government that the price rise was because of hoarding and black-marketing.

The affidavit filed by Commissioner (Food and Supplies) of the Delhi Government, Mr K Sethuraman, denied the allegations that the government had failed in any manner to discipline the wholesale and retail traders in onion and other vegetables and in preventing manipulation.

The affidavit was filed in pursuance of a PIL filed by All India Lawyers Union (AILU) through its counsel Ashok Aggarwal seeking a court direction to the government for immediately controlling the rising price of essential commodities.

The affidavit said "to the best of efforts done by the departments concerned of the Delhi government there is no evidence of significant hoarding of onion by private traders.

Mr Sethuraman said the hoarding of the commodity like onion is impossible as it has limited shelf life of a few weeks. Onion are harvested and dried in the onion growing areas and then transported. They are never kept in cold storage.

"Since onion has hardly any shelf life, hoarding is not possible. Hence there is no question of black-marketing of the commodity," the affidavit said.

The records of the Agricultural Producers Marketing Committee clearly show that there is a big fall in the arrival of onion due to poor crop. In comparison to last year, when 9092 tonnes of onion had arrived till October 26 last year only 7748 tonnes came to the Capital during the corresponding period this year, he added.

Unlike wheat and rice, for which buffer stocks could be maintained, entitlement per family could be worked out and distributing agencies allocated stocks, this could not be done for onions and other perishable vegetables. The government could only regulate the distribution on a first come first serve basis subject to the availability of the commodity, the affidavit said.

Denying that the government had abdicated its responsibility, the affidavit said the government with the help of the Centre supplied 837 MT of onion from July 8 till September 25 through 70 mobile outlets in addition to the static outlets supplied by the Central Government.

After September 26, the government supplemented the quantity with 62 MT everyday which was continuing till date.

The court, taking cognisance of the affidavit, directed counsel for the Central Government to file a counter on behalf of the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs by the next date of hearing on January 6.