Gandhinagar, 9 July, 2014

The Gujarat government today put onion and potato under the Essential Commodities list to prevent undue increase in prices of kitchen staples mainly due to hoarding amid rain shortfall in the state.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Bhupendrasinh Chudasama made the announcement under the provision of ‘Matter of Public Importance’ during the ongoing Assembly session here.

“This time, we are having a delayed monsoon in the state. Thus, to stop the price rise in onions and potatoes in the wake of delayed monsoon, we have decided to put both the items under Gujarat Essential Articles Dealers (Regulation) order of 1977, which is in accordance with Essential Commodities Act 1955,” Chudasama told the members of House.

According to him, the inclusion of these two articles will enable the authorities to keep a check on hoarding, which usually led to artificial price rise.

“Now, the government can check opening stock, actual sale and closing stock of dealers of these articles. Thus, dealers will not be able to hoard these articles for profit making,” said Chudasama.

He further added that the government is also planning to implement ‘stock limit’ for these articles.

“Our government is determined to make sure that people get these articles at reasonable rates. If needed, we will implement upper stock limit for these items to stop hoarding,” assured Chudasama.

Recently, the Centre had asked the state to put these two perishable items under the Essential Commodities Act, in an attempt to curb price rise.