Urging States for effective control on prices of essential commodities, the Centre on Thursday announced a slew of measures, including raids on hoarders to put a brake on spiralling prices of essential commodities like onions and potatoes in Delhi. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who held a meeting with Delhi’s lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and other senior officers, said steps have been taken to ensure reasonable prices of onions.
Addressing mediapersons, Singh said the Centre had given strict instructions to Delhi administration and administrations of other Union Territories to take actions against hoarders and black marketers. He appealed the States to take strict action on this regard.“As a follow up of the instructions for raiding suspected hoarders, as many as 540 places were already searched today,” Singh told reporters, adding 1,082 raids were carried out last month. The national Capital is under President’s rule and administratively under the control of the Home Ministry at present.
The Home Minister said he has directed that the drive against hoarding should be continued to provide maximum relief to the general public. Blaming the previous UPA regime for the price rise, Singh said, “UPA-II derailed our country’s economy. Now it will take some time to bring it on track. We are confident of doing so and we are committed to ensure that prices do not rise”.He said UPA-I had taken advantage of the achievements of the Atal Bihar Vajpayee-led NDA Government when the growth rate was above eight per cent. “The effect of that growth rate remained for 3-4 years,” he said.
Singh said the number of mobile vans selling essential commodities will be increased from existing 60 to 200 and the number of outlets selling onions (at Rs 20 a kg) and potatoes (at Rs18 a kg) in Government premises will be increased from 40 to 300.
Singh said Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami has spoken to NAFED and Agriculture Secretary to ensure availability of essential commodities besides chalking out a contingency plan for two months beginning July 15 to September 15 so that there is no increase in prices because of the shortfall in supplies in items like onions and potatoes.
Maintaining that the Narendra Modi Government is making an “honest effort” to bring down prices, Singh said he was confident about containing it but refused to spell out any time frame. The Home Minister said Delhi Government will fix stock limits for wholesalers and retailers regarding onions and potatoes to check hoarding.
“It was informed in the meeting that as compared to July 2013, prices of onions and potatoes in July 2014 are almost comparable. To be precise, onions were Rs1 per kg cheaper than the corresponding period last year and potato prices are more by Rs1 per kg as compared to last year on these days,” he said.Apart from the Delhi lG, those who attended the high-level meeting include Delhi Chief Secretary SK Srivastava and Police Commissioner BS Bassi.