18th Meeting | Group constituted for monitoring cartelisation, hoarding & speculative trading with respect to essential food

PIB News Update: The 18^thmeeting of the group constituted for monitoring cartelisation, hoarding, speculative trading etc. with respect to essential food items such as Pulses, Onions, Tomatoes and oil seeds was held under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Consumer Affairs,ShriAvinash K Srivastava at Krishi Bhawan today. Representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police, NAFED, DGFT, Ministry of External Affairs, Delhi Government attended the meeting. The representatives briefed the group about the prevailing scenario with respect to essential food items. It was informed by representatives of Agriculture that arrivals of Kharif onions have started and prices have since shown stable to declining trend. These are likely to increase in the coming days/ weeks. The following key decisions were taken based on the deliberations:

1. To augment availability ofPulses across the nation, appropriate policy interventions may be recommended at the appropriate time.
2. All the Chief Secretaries will be advised again to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders, importers, exporters etc. of onions, pulses, edible oils& oilseeds etc. at State and district levels especially during the festive season i.e. upto December, 2019.
3. The Committee of Police of NCR States should hold regular meetings under the Chairmanship of a Senior Delhi Police officer to keep watch on hoarding of stock by the traders near the State borders of Delhi and take suitable action against them.