Price rise in all retail items in Odisha is the highest in the country as it is basically a consuming State, said Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Kumar Dasburma in the Assembly on Saturday.
While Congress MlA Naba Kishore Das wanted to know whether Odisha tops other States in gross price rise, the Minister said it is true. Odisha tops other States in price rise as per the report of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, he said.
“The average price rise in Odisha stood at 7.92 against the national average of 4.83 in March 2016. While the price rise in rural and urban areas in the country was 5.70 and 3.95, respectively, it was 9.57 and 3.45, in that order, in Odisha,” informed the Minister.
He said that as Odisha depends of other States for various food crops (except rice), cereals and vegetables, it is a normal affair that prices of these items always remain high.
He further informed that the State Government has not adopted any policy to fix prices of the essential commodities. However, the Government has taken some steps to control the prices.
“As the price of potato rose in August 2014, the State Government had procured 2995.38 quintals of potato through the Nafed and supplied them to consumers though market intervention. Similarly, the Government had seized 1410 tonnes of dal from unscrupulous traders in 2015 when dal prices skyrocketed,” the Minister said.
He too stated that district Collectors have been directed to conduct raids on suspected godowns and take actions against black-marketers.