As onion prices in Odisha shot up to Rs 100 per kilogram, workers of the opposition Congress party sold onion bulbs at Rs 40 a kg on Monday to protest against the unprecedented price rise.
Congress workers set up a mobile counter outside the party headquarters in Bhubaneswar where they sold parcels of 250 gm of onion to people at Rs 40 a kg. As the crowd grew around the mobile stall for onions, Bhubaneswar district president of Congress, Manas Choudhury said as the State government did not listen to the pleas of the common men, his party decided to buy onions at high rates and sell them at reasonable rates.
“Many labourers eat raw onion with Pakhala (watery rice). That is why we decided to buy onions and sell them at a reasonable rate. The government needs to wake up at least now,” said Choudhury, alleging that the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre and the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha is responsible for the price rise. Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said that the country is being run by a government that only knows to make promises but fails to keep it.
Extensive crop damage in Maharashtra, one of the major onion producing states of the country has triggered a steep rise in onion prices across the country. In Odisha, onion prices have ranged between Rs 50 and Rs 100 a kilo for over a month now. Though food and consumer supplies department made arrangements for selling onions at affordable prices in 284 fair price shops across the State, they have not been enough. Odisha normally imports around 2500 quintals of onion per day from states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. But that figure has fallen substantially since the onion shortage began.
{{/usCountry}}Extensive crop damage in Maharashtra, one of the major onion producing states of the country has triggered a steep rise in onion prices across the country. In Odisha, onion prices have ranged between Rs 50 and Rs 100 a kilo for over a month now. Though food and consumer supplies department made arrangements for selling onions at affordable prices in 284 fair price shops across the State, they have not been enough. Odisha normally imports around 2500 quintals of onion per day from states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. But that figure has fallen substantially since the onion shortage began.
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