Veg shops raided in Fatehabad to check hoarding of onions

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, August 25

With prices skyrocketing, officials of the market committee raided shops in the vegetable market to check hoarding here today.

Major Singh Sandhu, secretary of the committee, said prices were soaring despite a good crop this year. Raids are being conducted to ensure that the traders did not raise the prices artificially by hoarding the commodity. However, the raiding party did not find any wrongdoing by any trader, he added.

Traders maintained that there was no use of raiding their shops. If the government is interested in decreasing the prices, they should raid the wholesale market at Nasik in Maharashtra where the hoarding actually takes place. They maintained there were hardly 200 bags of onions in the entire market which could not even meet a day’s demand.

“Onion is a perishable item and it will start rotting if stored for more than three or four days in this weather. Hence, no trader can risk losing his investment on this count,” said Jagdish Chander, a partner of New Zamindara Fruits and Vegetable Company.

Storage of onions is a specialised job and requires special storage conditions, which no one possesses in this area, he added.

Cold stores inspected to check hoarding

Kurukshetra: Following directions from SDM Satbir Kundu, secretaries of market committees conducted surprise visits at cold stores to check the hoarding of onion on Tuesday. The secretaries have been asked to check the onion stock in vegetable markets and cold stores and send a report. We will ensure that there is no illegal stocking of onions, he added. Dinesh Kumar, secretary, Pipli, said that in the wake of rising prices, inspections were carried to check hoarding of onions. Nearly 5,000 bags of onion were found in Atwal cold store in Bohli village and a status report has been sent to district food and supplies department. Now the department would check whether the stock belongs to a single person or various farmers and also that if the stock is as per the prescribed limit or not. Appropriate action would be taken against the guilty, he added. —TNS

Congress protests steep hike

Karnal: Infuriated over the steep hike in the price of onions, women Congress members today held a protest in Prem Nagar in the city and blamed the Union and state government for not checking inflation. Shouting slogans against the government, they said it has failed to keep its poll promises. Santosh Kairalia, former state secretary of the SC cell, led the protest and said that the PM Narendra Modi had promised the country to rein inflation during elections, but it has been spiralling out of control. The price of onions rose up to Rs 70 which has spoiled the budget of each household. With such high prices it was difficult to run the kitchen, she said.