Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday said the Centre is planning to amend two Acts to curb hoarding of certain essential commodities like potato and onion.
“We are planning to amend Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and Prevention of Black Marketing Act, 1980 in order to curb hoarding of essential food items,” said the Minister at a Press conference here.
Paswan added that the Union Government wants to place stringent laws so that none would dare to indulge in black marketing of essential items. The Centre wanted to make the offenders under the Essential Commodities Act undergo at least one year imprisonment instead of six months. “The Centre also wanted to make the offences non-bailable,” Paswan said.
Replying to a question on West Bengal restricting the transportation of potato to Odisha, Paswan said this should not happen in a federal State. Paswan, who reviewed the progress in implementation of the National Food Security Act, said Odisha government has been working on it. Though only 11 states so far have implemented the NFSA, the Centre has told them to do it as soon as possible.
Terming Odisha as a rice-surplus State in eastern India, Paswan also said the storage capacity in the State would soon be augmented. Storage capacity will be increased by 40,000 metric tonnes, he said, adding that the Food Corporation of India has been asked to make space in its godowns to store additional paddy being procured by the State.