The food and consumer affairs ministry on Thursday said value-chain participants in the pulses industry have declared 30.97 lakh tonne of pulses stock on a government portal and this data can be used for taking steps to ensure smooth supply of the key commodity at affordable rates.

As part of its measures to control rising prices of pulses and check hoarding, the ministry had in July directed states to ensure stockists, millers and traders provide details of the stock they are holding on any given date on portal https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp.

“At least 11,635 stockholders have registered declaring 3097694.42 tonne of stock of pulses on the official portal of Department of Consumer Affairs as on September 20, 2021,” the ministry said in a statement.

Digitization of pulses stock is in full swing, it added.

According to the ministry, stock declaration through traders, millers, importers, and warehouses which are both public and privately owned will create a data bank.

This will enable the government to understand which states are producing and keeping a stock for milling purposes. It will also help keep a check on undesirable practices of hoarding and artificial scarcity creation through stock declaration and real time verification of the same, it said.

The portal can also be accessed by any citizen. Privacy of data is maintained. The data declared by any stockholder will be visible to them besides the state and central governments.

Further, the ministry said the data helps them in knowing the movement of stocks and the quantum of stocks with them on any given date.

State governments can monitor the registrations done and stocks declared by various stakeholders pertaining to their own states. This gives the data of the quantum of stocks of various pulses available in their states.

It also throws light on any expected shortfall of any particular pulse so that the state government can act proactively to ensure smooth availability by way of imports or through central buffers depending upon the situation, it added.

Stating that the Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the situation at the national level, the data provided on the portal will also make aware of any expected shortfall of any particular pulse across the country so that the Centre is able to act proactively.

“The various measures that will be taken by the government based on the data from the portal will help in ensuring smooth availability of pulses at affordable prices for the consumers,” it added.