Defending his govt’s stand on the onion issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said if state govts had heeded agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to create a buffer stock of onions, the onion prices would not have gone out of control.
Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar has told the upper house of parliament that the govt has asked Nafed to import onions to make available enough onions on the market. According to the minister, Nafed is also procuring onions from various local markets to supply to consumers at a fair price through a network of its own outlets.
Sources say these are some of the steps the govt think would lower the prices of onions in the country.
Independent observers say the extraordinary onion price fluctuations in recent months are primarily due to the govt’s general mismanagement of the economy.