Centre to advice all states to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders to check hoarding of essential food items

The Centre will advise all States to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders, importers, exporters of onions, pulses, edible oils and oilseeds at State and district levels especially during the festive season upto December this year. A decision in this regard was taken at the 18th meeting of the group constituted for monitoring cartelisation, hoarding, speculative trading with respect to essential food items such as Pulses, Onions, Tomatoes and oil seeds held under the Chairmanship of Consumer Affairs Secretary in New Delhi yesterday. 

The Committee of Police of NCR States will hold regular meetings under the Chairmanship of a Senior Delhi Police officer to keep watch on hoarding of stock by the traders near the



State borders of Delhi and take suitable action against them. To augment availability of Pulses across the nation, appropriate policy interventions will be recommended at the appropriate time.

 

Representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police, NAFED, DGFT, Ministry of External Affairs, Delhi Government attended the meeting. The representatives briefed the group about the prevailing scenario with respect to essential food items. Representatives of Agriculture informed that arrivals of Kharif onions have started and prices have since shown stable to declining trend. These are likely to increase in the coming days or weeks.