Talks fail with AAP govt, NAFED sells onions in capital’s mandis

However, over the past few days, Singh said talks with the Delhi government had failed to decide the purchase price.

Failure of talks with the AAP government over the purchase price of onions has led the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India (NAFED) to sell the procured onions in the mandis of Delhi. Bijender Singh, vice-president of NAFED, said they have till now sold around 400 metric tonnes of the commodity in the mandis of Delhi.

Unseasonal summer rain and sudden hailstorms in major onion-producing states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc., had resulted in widespread destruction of the summer crop. Although around 40 lakh metric tonnes have been stored across the country to meet the requirement from June onwards, most of it is of inferior quality.

Singh said NAFED was instructed by the Central government to procure 2,500 metric tonnes of onions for Delhi at Rs 5 crore. The Delhi government was to buy back the onions from NAFED and sell them in its fair price shops once the price of the commodity reached a threshold value.

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However, over the past few days, Singh said talks with the Delhi government had failed to decide the purchase price.

“We had purchased the produce at Lasalgaon at Rs 19 per kg. Packaging and transporting the produce to Delhi would amount to adding 8-10 per cent to the cost and thus we had decided the selling price at Rs 26 per kg, but the Delhi government was not ready for it,” he said.

Singh claimed the Delhi government wanted to buy the onions at Rs 19 per kg, which would not be feasible for NAFED. Singh accused the Delhi government of failing to anticipate the situation and act accordingly.

Preeti Sharma Menon, spokesperson of AAP, refuted the charges by Singh and said at no point the purchase price had come into the picture. “During the month of April, discussions were held with both SFAC and NAFED for procurement of onions. As both are government agencies, price was not discussed. In the end, SFAC was asked to procure 1,000 metric tonnes of onions for Delhi markets,” she said.

Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

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