The salt crisis fuelled by rumour mongers led to distress buying since early morning in many parts of Arunachal Pradesh that prompted the Arunachal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) to smell the rat and swing into action to tackle the situation.
"All of a sudden small traders started buying bulk quantities of salt, followed by consumers queuing before grocery shops to buy larger quantities, apprehending that the rate would rise exorbitantly," most of the traders told this reporter in dismay.
About 1100 quintals of salt were sold during the day in Capital Complex according to wholesalers Arunachal Trading Corporation and Matri Bhandar against an average sale of 200 quintals in five months.
"We are ignorant as to why there has been such a demand all of a sudden, which we have never seen even when the roads get blocked for weeks together," a few of them told this reporter.
APYC general secretary Pinna Muklom complained that salt was being sold for Rs 100 per kg in Miao in Changlang district today.
A few consumers have stocked salt worth Rs. 1,000 while a housewife said she bought salt at Rs 30 per kg.
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Suspecting that the move could be with a political angle or for fun's sake, ACCI president Techi Lala, general secretary Tarh Nachung, joint secretary Rajesh Rinwa and councillors Kipa Takum and Tame Kunia got in touch with manufacturers in Gujarat and wholesalers in Guwahati, who laughed at the 'crisis' and said they had enough stock.
Convinced at the ploy of people with vested interests, the ACCI team organized retail sale of about 200 quintals of salt at Rs 10 per kg below MRP of Rs 12. Moreover, Lala and Nachung supported by ADM Talo Potom and ACCI chief adviser Pradeep Kumar through public address system spread mass awareness about the make belief crisis created by some vested interests.
Lala cautioned the traders that anyone selling salt above the MRP or resorting to hoarding or black marketing to create forceful crisis would be booked under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) as the GoAP is alive to the situation and has taken precautionary measures to defuse the situation. The ACCI with the help of administration would launch patrolling and anyone found guilty would not be spared, Lala warned.
Meanwhile, the alert district administration and police arrested nine traders - two from Naharlagun, three from Nirjuli and four from Itanagar - for selling salt at higher rates.
There have been instances of salt being sold Rs 150 to Rs 50 per kg in inaccessible places, but never before has such a situation occurred in the state during the last three decades.
Meanwhile, reacting to the information that iodized salt is being sold at exorbitant rates in the open market by unscrupulous traders and thereby causing panic among consumers, the food and civil supplies department has instructed the deputy commissioners of every district to carry out surprise checking of suspected hoarding locations to contain the artificial crisis, and to ensure constant monitoring of local market rates as per the provisions of the relevant law in force.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kamlung Mosang informed that 23,000 quintals of iodized salt are presently available with zonal PDS nominees for iodized salt.
"The department will be able to meet the requirement of iodized salt for the next few months. The DCs have also been asked to place indents with the respective zonal nominees as per the monthly allocation for onward distribution to the consumers," he said.
The department has appealed to consumers not to panic over the rumours of salt crisis created by petty traders to earn easy money by exploiting the situation.
The state BJP has also urged the residents of the capital to not be carried away by rumours. It has meanwhile demanded that the Capital Complex administration ensures provision of sufficient salt in the capital, saying the party would otherwise 'take further course as warranted.