Onion prices rise: Assam CM asks officials to control

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday termed the rising prices of onions as a matter of concern and directed officials to take urgent steps to control the prices of the commodity.

In a review meeting of the state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department, he said effective delivery of public service needs to be strengthened.

As Sonowal was apprised of the possibility of procuring onion from the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and providing the vegetable at controlled prices in the market, he instructed officials to take action in this regard so that the state's monthly onion requirement of around 60,000 metric tonnes could be met.

Referring to the over 38,000 fair price shops in the state, Sonowal stressed on the need to rationalise the number of shops which is more than what is required. The chief minister also directed the department to device a mechanism to generate self-employment opportunities for the rural youth through setting up of cold storages and warehouses which could be run on the Public-Private Partnership model.