Amid sky-rocketing prices, Ganjam district administration in Odisha has started selling onions at wholesale rate in ration shops in Berhampur town. At least 37 fair price shops started to sell onions of Nasik quality at Rs 45 per kg on Tuesday and one can purchase up to 2 kg of onion from the control shops, sources said.
We decided to sell the onions in the control shops to stabilise the market, said sub collector, Berhampur BK Das. District administration had convened a meeting of the onion traders in the town on Monday evening and requested them to supply the poor man's commodity at no-profit, they said.
Though initially they were reluctant, later agreed to supply at Rs 44 per kg to the administration, while it would be sold at Rs 45 per kg in the fair price shops, sub collector said.
Government has taken this step to sell the onion at fair price when the prices of it have soared to around Rs 55 per kg in the retail market in the town. The wholesale price of the onion touched Rs 43-45 per kg, sources said. We will request the district administration to extend the same pattern in other towns and in rural areas, if the experiment is success in Berhampur town, said additional civil supply officer (ACSO), Berhampur Purushottam Lenka.
He also said onion selling shops would be extended in the town in the coming days, if the demand increased. He however said the sell of onions in fair price shops would be continued till the price stabilized in the market. While around 10 truck loads of onions were coming to Berhampur market from Nasik, the major production area in Maharastra, about ten days ago, the volume came down to only three to four trucks at present.
Besides catering to the needs in Berhampur, the southern Odisha town was also supplying onions to other towns in the district as well nearby Kandhamla, Gajapati and Rayagada districts, traders said.
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