Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Saturday said it is regrettable that due to the alleged callousness of the Arvind Kejriwal government, people in Delhi are forced to buy onions, which is a kitchen staple, at around Rs. 75 a kg through vegetable vendors.
According to the BJP leader, till August 20, Onion was selling at Rs. 15 to 20 a kg as per quality in wholesale markets, and in retail market it was selling at around Rs. 20 to 30 a kg.
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He further said that Delhi is dependent on Maharastra and Karnataka for good Onion supply like most other parts of the country, and in the latter part of monsoon, the onion crop in either of the two states gets damaged leading to onion scarcity and price rise.
Sachdeva has said that during past 2 decade, the onion shortage and price rise story has been occurring almost every year, and the BJP has been urged the Delhi government to make a backup plan to meet post monsoon onion shortage, but strangely Kejriwal government never pays heed to the advice, to create a buffer stock of onion ready in cold storage by mid July.
Sachdeva also alleged that the Delhi government is not making efforts to buy bumper stocks from the cold storages in the Onion producing states.
The Delhi BJP chief further said that if Delhi Government, especially the ministers Gopal Rai, Atishi and Imran Hussain had considered BJP’s advice of creating a buffer stock of onion in Delhi by end of July, at present, the price of the kitchen essential would not have touched so high.
Sachdeva added that the central government through its agencies like NAFED created an onion stock and is today providing through vans onion at subsidized price of Rs. 35 a kg, but the Kejriwal government neither created any buffer stock nor is doing any retail market correction to control prices, the BJP leader said.