State govts to check hoarding during festive season

State governments will take steps to check hoarding of essential commodities in view of upcoming festival season and also hold regular meetings with retailers and wholesellers to rationalise their margins.
States also agreed to seek more allocation of pulses from central buffer stock, which has been created to sell lentils at reasonable price not exceeding Rs 120 per kg. So far, only about 7,000 tonnes have been lifted by them.
These decisions were taken at a meeting held today to discuss measures to ensure availability of essential items at reasonable prices, especially of pulses. The meeting was chaired by Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande and attended by Principal Secretaries, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs of States.

The meeting reviewed availability of pulses and sugar and stock limits imposed by states thereon, bringing down price difference between wholesale and retail, lifting of pulses from central buffer stock and strict enforcement of packaged commodities rules.
The Centre has taken various steps to boost domestic availability of pulses and sugar and check prices. In pulses, it is creating buffer stock through local purchases and imports, while in sugar, a 20 per cent export duty has been imposed recently.
"In the meeting, states informed that the prices of pulses have started registering downward trends in recent weeks and expected to decline further. States said that stock limits on essential commodities have been imposed and in view of coming festival season, strict monitoring will be done to check hoarding of essential commodities," an official statement said.

The Centre said that the huge margin between wholesale and retail price, which varies from 7 per cent to 32 per cent at various places, is a cause of concern.

"In this regard, states agreed to hold periodical meetings with wholesalers and retailers to rationalise this margin," the statement said.
States were asked to strengthen information mechanism to monitor prices of essential commodities and its daily reporting from various markets to the Centre.
They were also told to increase number of such reporting centres so that price reporting mechanism may be made more broad-based.
States were also requested to create a dedicated Police Department on the lines of Tamil Nadu to check offences under Essential Commodities Act and to ensure display of stocks by wholesellers and importers and disposal of imported pulses within 45 days.