The Centre has taken various initiatives to monitor stocks of Tur and Urad in the country. Senior officers from the Department of Consumer Affairs visited ten locations across four states to interact and observe the stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad during the past few days.
In this regard, Department of Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh took an internal meeting with these officers who visited major pulses markets and interacted with various market players.
During the last week, apart from holding a meeting with the All India Dal Mills Association at Indore by the Secretary on 15 April 2023, the Department deputed twelve senior officers to visit various places in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to take stock of ground reality.
The interactions with ground-level market players and state officials revealed that while the number of registration and stock disclosure on the e-portal is increasing, a substantial number of market players have either not registered or failed to update their stock positions on a regular basis.
It has been observed that stocks under the transaction, like farmer’s stocks lying in mandi for auction, stocks awaiting customs clearance at ports, etc. escaped the current monitoring mechanism.
Further, it has also been observed that millers and traders/dealers have resorted to holding their stocks in warehouses in the name of farmers in a deliberate attempt to escape stock declaration.
To improve the stock disclosure data, the Department is making certain changes in the e-portal such as incorporating text boxes for providing a warehouse in which stock is held, provision for dealer or commission agent or mandi trader to upload stock data of farmers lying in his shop yard for auctioning, etc.
Further, the Department has been in touch with customs to take necessary action on importers who have deliberately delayed clearance of their consignments, an official press note said.