Govt junks plan to limit tomato stocks

The city government has put on hold the plan of fixing the stock limit of tomatoes and onions.
At a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Wednesday, the revenue department officials decided to not to implement the plan of fixing stock limit fearing that the traders from outside Delhi will avoid the city.

“On Tuesday, Jung chaired a high level meeting with the 11 divisional commissioners to review the prices of essential commodities. It was decided not to implement the plan of fixing stock limit as the traders from outside Delhi always come with big stock and, if it is applied, they might avoid the city,” a senior Delhi government official said.

Jung had raised the issue of hoarding and rising prices of onions and tomatoes at a meeting at Home Ministry a few days back and a plan was made to fix the stock limit to 400 quintal for wholesale dealers and 12 quintals for retail dealers.

If the law was imposed, keeping the stock of onions and tomatoes more than the permitted limit would have become and offence under the Essential Commodities Act.

Under the Act, the violators are booked in a non-bailable offence.

“Delhi is not an onion and tomato producing state. The role of state’s farmer in supplying onions and tomatoes in the wholesale market is very minimal.

The state is totally depended on other states’ farmers which often come with large supples of vegetables. So it is impossible to impose the Act, at least for now,” the official added.

Meanwhile, as the government’s plan failed, the prices of tomatoes reached Rs 70-80 per kg in parts of Delhi.
Onions are being sold at Rs 40-50 per kg. Despite of a numbers of raids by different government departments, not a single hoarder of these two vegetables has been arrested so far.