Centre asks states to take action against pulses hoarders

To assess the situation at the ground level, the Department of Consumer Affairs has deputed 12 senior officers to visit various states in India

To check the rising prices of pulses, the Centre has asked the states to take strong action against hoarders.

Top officials of the Union ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, visited ten different places across four states in the last few days to examine the stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad dal, with an aim to control rising prices of the pulses.

Prices of Tur and Urad, along with other pulses, have been on the rise over the last few weeks mainly due to damage of crops due to unseasonal rain.

Read | Crops in 34,000 hectare damaged because of unseasonal rain, hailstorms in Maharashtra

To assess the situation at the ground level, the Department of Consumer Affairs has deputed 12 senior officers to visit various places in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, in addition to the Secretary, Government of India, meeting with the All India Dal Mills Association in Indore on April 15, said a statement from the Ministry.

The interactions with ground-level market players and State officials revealed that while the number of registrations and stock disclosures on the e-portal are increasing, a substantial number of market players have either not registered or failed to update their stock positions on a regular basis.

It has been observed that stocks under transaction, like farmers' stocks lying in mandis for auction, stocks awaiting customs clearance at ports etc. escaped the current monitoring mechanism. Further, it has also been observed that millers and traders/dealers have resorted to holding their stocks in warehouses in the name of farmers in a deliberate attempt to escape stock declaration, said the statement.

Read | Unseasonal rains damage 42,000 hectares of crops in Gujarat

Senior officers of the Department visited various locations, namely, Indore, Chennai, Salem, Mumbai, Akola, Latur, Sholapur, Kalaburagi, Jabalpur, and Katni, and interacted with officers of the State Governments, millers, traders, importers and port authorities, besides conducting meetings with associations of millers, importers, and traders.

The market players were sensitized on the importance of stock declaration and have been asked to declare their stocks truthfully and regularly or else stringent action such as seizure and confiscation of undeclared stocks may be done by the State Government, said the statement.