By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 03, 2019: THE Cabinet Secretary, Mr Rajiv Gauba, yesterday chaired a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries to review the issue of rising prices of Onions across the country.

In a video conference held with the Chief Secretaries of the 11 major onion producing states, the Cabinet Secretary was briefed about the various steps being taken by the States to tackle the rising prices of Onions.

Chief Secretaries from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana participated in the video conference.

The Cabinet Secretary directed the States that the overall availability of the Onions has to be beefed up, considering the temporary shortage, to stabilise the prices. The Centre has already taken a decision on not allowing the export of Onions during the current season.

The States were further directed to maintain considerable buffer stocks, impose stock limits on traders and to ensure strict action against hoarding.

Mr Rajiv Gauba said that the Union Government has approved the import of 11000 Metric Tonnes of onions from the 29th November to tide over the situation. The deliveries are expected from the last week of December, 2019.

This is in addition to the decision of the Government to import 6090 Metric Tonnes of Onions from Egypt on the 22nd November 2019. The deliveries are expected from 2nd Week of December.

Cabinet Secretary directed the States to utilise their Food and Civil Supply Departments to procure and distribute Onions at reasonable prices.

Secretary Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Secretary Food & Public Distribution along with other senior officials of Government of India also attended the meeting.