Bhubaneswar: While onion prices continue to remain firm, the state government Friday fixed a cap on the onion stock of wholesalers and asked traders to ensure sufficient supply of the bulb item in the market to curb further rise in prices.
“We have fixed the stock limit for onion wholesalers and have issued instructions to them to adhere to it strictly,” said Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Minister SN Patro to this newspaper over phone.
The minister said that for Bhubaneswar the wholesalers would be able to stock up to 500 quintals, while for Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela and Sambalpur the stock limit of wholesalers is 300 quintals. For other towns, the limit has been fixed at 150quintals.
“The order on the stock limit will remain effective till 2019,” Patro said.
The wholesalers have also been asked to issue cash memos to the traders during supply of the essential commodity to them.
Officials said that the department will monitor the price of the essential kitchen commodity for the next 15 days as the new stock of onion is expected to arrive in the market during this period which may help bring down its price.
A meeting in this regard has already been held between the FSCW department and the traders where the government asked traders to ensure sufficient import of onions to the state markets from the source markets, especially from Nasik, to meet the demands of consumers.
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