MP govt forced to sell onions to poor at Rs 1/kg

BHOPAL: It is raining onions in flood-hit Madhya Pradesh.

Published on: Aug 28, 2016, 06:21:09 IST

By Neeraj Santoshi

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BHOPAL: It is raining onions in flood-hit Madhya Pradesh.

The state government, which procured excess onions from farmers at Rs 6 per kg, has now decided to sell them to the poor for Rs 1 per kg.

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh took to onion farming on a large scale last year because of its high price but the bumper crop this year meant no buyers in the open market, forcing the state government to procure the excess crop.

However, the shortage of warehouses meant onions rotting during rains. The government estimated that 3.8 lakh quintals of onions have rotted in absence of adequate storage facilities.

Officials of Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED), the nodal body for procurement of onions, said the state government had sold just one lakh quintal of the 10.4 lakh quintals of onions till now.

The government first floated a tender for selling the onions, but the response was just 60 paisa per kg. The tender was issued again, but the response didn’t improve much as it got a price between 60 paisa to Rs 1.50.

The government then decided to auction onions at the district level. At a rate of Rs 4 per kg, authorities were able to sell nearly 22,000 quintals. The auction rates were lowered again to Rs 2 per kg, which led to the sale of over 60,000 quintals of onions.

Now, the state government has decided to distribute the remaining onions free of cost among poor families, with Rs 1 to be charged for transportation. This would mean a loss of about Rs 100 crore.

BM Sharma, managing director of MARKFED, said, “Over five lakh quintals of onion are still lying in warehouses. Three days ago, the state government decided to sell onions to people in the BPL category through fair-price shops at the rate of Rs 1 per kg.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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