Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Wednesday demanded the state government to publish a white paper stating the number of cold storage it has constructed to store onions in the state.
OPCC spokesperson told newspersons here that onion is being sold at Rs 60 per kg in the market now from Rs 30 per kg two weeks ago.
He said the prices rose as the government has not constructed a single cold storage to store onions during the last nine years. The Congress leader said in 2015, the government launched the ‘Onion Mission’ with the objective to increase onion production in the state and to regulate the price of onion and allocated Rs 15 crore for it.
Though the government then had said 300 cold storages would be constructed under the ‘Onion Mission’ and ten cold storage through RMC but not a single cold storage has been built so far.
He said though 12 crore had already been spent the Onion Mission failed to achieve its objective. The mission, Mohanty said failed to prevent the distressed sale of onions by onion farmers and to save the consumers from buying onions at a higher price.
The OPCC spokesperson alleged that the government has no information about the quantity of onions produced in the state. While the traders association put the production of onion at less than one lakh tons per annum, the government at different times put the total production of onion in the state from over 3.75 lakh tons to 3.95 lakh tons.
He said Odisha’s five districts – Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bolangir, Anugul and Boudh produce onion. He demanded the government supply onion to people at Rs 30 per kg through fair-price shops till the prices came down below Rs 30 per kg.
UNI
