Respite to consumers; sale of onion starts in fair price shops

Cuttack, 8/11: The consumers today got a bit relief as the sale of onion at concessional price has  begun at fair price shops. While the tuber is selling in retail market at a rate of Rs 70 per kg, the consumers  are getting two kg onion each at Rs 49 per kg at Maitree fair price shops. The price of the onion has sky rocketed as the production of the tuber at Nasik in Maharashtra and in Andhra Pradesh has been badly affected due to devastating floods. This has put the consumers, especially the poor people, into tizzy. The state food supplies and consumer welfare department has taken market intervention measures to ease the burden of the consumers. It has started buying onion at source points and selling the tuber at no loss -no profit basis. Though the consumers have heaved a sigh of relief following the state government’s move and expressed happiness, they are not happy with the quality of the commodity being sold at the fair price shops. Some of the consumers have also opined that the state government should have taken this step much earlier. The state government had initiated steps to encourage increase in domestic production of onion in the state, the outcome has not been up to expectation. Odisha is dependent on the import of onion from other states, as the domestic production is around one third of the demand and there has been a dearth of cold storages to store this perishable commodity.