No more shedding tears over onion prices. Delhi High Court on Thursday had asked the Centre and Delhi Government to take necessary steps to ensure that the price of the kitchen staple was well within the aam admi’s reach.
The High Court hearing a PIl filed by social worker, Poonam Jain, alleging inaction by Governments in controlling the price of onions, said, “Steps to be taken by the Delhi Government and Centre to ensure that the onion price issue will be addressed and that people do not suffer.”
A bench of acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru passed the order and disposed the plea after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rajeev Mehra, appearing for the Centre, assured the Court that steps have been taken to stem rising prices. Placing before the bench a status report filed by the Department of Consumer Affairs of Agriculture Ministry, the senior law officer said that the onion price situation was influenced by its production and arrival. Domestic onion prices tended to peak between September and November and fell during January-March every year. “Generally onion storage gets depleted by August-September,” the lawyer said. He further submitted that the Central Government has sent a request to Maharashtra, the highest onion producer in the country, for a steady supply of the edible bulb to Delhi.
The bench recorded the senior counsel’s arguments in its order saying, “The ASG assures that the Centre will aggressively persuade Maharashtra for sufficient supply of onions to Delhi.”