State govt starts raid on onion and potato traders; However, will the market intervention measures be effective ?

{"id":22729,"sizeSlug":"large"} Bhubaneswar, 27/12: Finally, the state government has initiated market intervention measures after the consumers suffered due to sky rocketing of onion and potato price. The state civil supplies department has imposed limit on the stocking of the two tubers and launching raids in the markets The intelligence team of the state civil supplies department today conducted raid in the Unit-I and Unit-IV daily markets in the capital city.  As per the amended storage rules, a wholesaler in Bhubaneswar can keep  upto 1000 quintal potato and 250 quintal onion stock. Similarly, limit has been fixed for keeping the stock by the wholesale traders in four other cities Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Rourkela at 500 quintal potato and 250 quintal onion.The wholesalers can keep the maximum stock of 300 quintal potato and 150 quintal onion at other places. On the other hand, the retail traders can keep 40 quintal potato and 20 quintal onion in the four cities of Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur. The stock limit has been fixed at 15 quintal for potato and 8 quintal for onion. {"id":22730,"sizeSlug":"large"} However, Odisha Byabasayee Mahasangh has opposed the government decision. " By this, the traders will have to bear extra transport cost", said Mahasangh secretary Sudhakar Panda. In fact, the exorbitant price of the onion and the rising price of potato has hit the consumers hard. Onion price in the retail market has remained Rs 120 per kg, while potato is being sold at Rs 25 per kg and at some places the price has touched Rs 26.