Over 20,000 tonnes of seized pulses offloaded in retail mkt

Over 20,000 tonnes of pulses out of 1.33 lakh tonnes seized during raids have been offloaded in the market so far as part of the government's steps to boost domestic availability and control prices.
The government also said the prices of essential commodities have stabilised after a declining trend last week.
"As per reports received from state governments, till yesterday, 20,779.25 tonnes pulses seized under de-hoarding operations have been auctioned or offloaded through other options in the market to increase availability," an official statement said today.
"This will help moderate the prices further," it added.
Maharashtra has offloaded 13,789.4 tonnes out of 86,709.39 tonnes seized by the state government during 5,250 raids.

Madhya Pradesh has disposed of 2,698.7 tonnes, Chhattisgarh 2,145.22 tonnes and Odisha 1,403.86 tonnes.

Karnataka has disposed of only 488.53 tonnes so far out of 25,545.82 tonnes seized.
"The High Court of Karnataka on November 23 declared the Department of Food & Civil Supplies' seizure of pulses stored by traders as "illegal" and ordered the release of pulses, edible oils and oilseeds from them," the statement said.
Since imposition of the stockholding limits on pulses by the states, 1,33,658.92 tonnes were seized till November 30.
Efforts are being made also by other states to expedite disposal of seized pulses as per provisions of the Essential Commodities Act.

In another statement, the government said retail prices have stabilised during the last week after showing a falling trend in the week ended November 23, 2015. The retail prices in metros have also stabilised.
As per the official data, arhar is ruling between Rs 148-164 per kg in four metros while urad is being sold at Rs 126-170 per kg.
Pulse prices had crossed Rs 200 per kg in the retail market due to a slump in production by 2 million tonnes in 2014-15.
In a bid to control pulses prices which were inching
close to Rs 200/kg, the Centre in May had released 10,400 tonnes of tur and urad from its buffer stock for retail sale at subsidised rate of Rs 120/kg in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

The Centre has built a buffer of 50,000 tonnes by way of domestic procurement. It is in the process of procuring one lakh tonnes of chana and masoor in the ongoing rabi season.
Unlike last year, the government has started imports through state-run MMTC on time to augment domestic supplies and check prices.
Pulses prices have again started spiralling because of fall in domestic production due to back-to-back drought.
Urad is available at Rs 195/kg, tur at Rs 170/kg, moong dal at Rs 121/kg , masoor dal at Rs 105/kg and gram at Rs 85/kg today in retail markets, as per the government data.

As per the Agriculture Ministry's second estimate, pulses production is estimated at 17.33 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), marginally higher than the previous years production of 17.15 million tonnes.
India is the world's largest producer of pulses, but its domestic demand outstrips production. The shortfall is met through imports.
Meanwhile replying to a question on India's new IPR policy, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said: "This policy has been just approved. We will be discussing with the RBI and other agencies and other stakeholders on how to take this forward".