Friday, October 23, 2015

Maximum hoarding in Maha

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

■ 36K-tonne pulses recovered in country; 23,340 tonnes in State

Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Oct. 21:

With the Centre cracking its whip on hoarders of pulses, the prices of arhar dal has come down to ` 145 per kg in a few states, tur dal is down to ` 120 per kg in Delhi through outlets of Safal and Kendriya Bhandar, urad dal is down to ` 30 per kg in Tamil Nadu and prices of red gram has come down to ` 50 per kg in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The Centre tonight asserted that more than 36,000 tonnes of pulses have been seized during the operations against hoarding in several states. Maharashtra tops the list of states where seized pulses account for 23,340 tonnes. In the remaining nine states, the seizure was 12,000 tonnes only. In all, more than 2,700 raids were conducted across the country.

The raids were conducted immediately after the Centre amended the Essential Commodities Act to enable States to impose stock limits on pulses sourced from imports and held by exporters of foodgrain products, large food processing units, large departmental retailers in the country. The states were exhorted to carry out surprise inspections and raids to prevent hoarding of pulses.

In a bid to increase the availability of pulses, in Haryana MD, HADED has been directed to procure pulses from the market and sell it through its outlets to bring down the prices. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley blamed the states for "doing nothing" to de-hoard pulses stock-piled by the hoarders in a big way. While the Centre had imported only 5,000 tonnes, another 3,000 tonnes are on the way. But globally, pulses are not available in other countries in large quantities.

He urged the states to take stern criminal action against hoarders. He was at pains to explain that it was the duty of the states to take action against hoarders. But it was the Centre that pushed them to act. Jaitley said the quantity of seized pulses has touched 36,000 tonnes and searches will continue and prices will come down further.

He said the PM had constituted a group of ministers (GoMs) which reviewed the situation and prices are coming down with the each passing day.

According to a release, maximum quantity of 23,340 tonnes was seized in Maharashtra, followed by 4,525.19 tonnes in Chhattisgarh, 2,546 tonnes in Telangana, 2,295 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 1,168 tonnes in Haryana, 859.80 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 479.60 tonnes in Karnataka, 68.47 tonnes in Rajasthan, 4.32 tonnes in Tamil Nadu and 2.44 tonnes in Himachal Pradesh.