Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: With potato price skyrocketing in local markets, the state government Tuesday put together a contingency plan to regulate its market price. “Our department has prepared a contingency plan to regulate potato price in markets,” food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma said, here after a high-level meet in the secretariat.
“I have asked officials to direct collectors to enforce the Essential Commodities Act to ensure that traders do not take advantage of the situation and exploit consumers,” the minister said, adding district collectors have been told to conduct meetings with wholesalers to fix retail price of potatoes.
Collectors have been directed to assess the present stock of potatoes in cold storages. “Under Potato Mission, all cold storages in the state had been asked to store 50 per cent of potatoes as buffer stock,” he said.
The food minister said production of potatoes in the country this year had come down by about 30 per cent due to unfavourable weather. “According horticulture department inputs, potato production in Orissa this year has fallen by about 30 per cent,” he added.
Das Burma said the state government is in touch with potato traders in West Bengal and other neighboring states for procurement of the tuber in view of the shortfall in its production in the state.