Over 68,000 tonnes of pulses, out of 1.3 lakh tonnes seized during the raids, have been offloaded in the market so far to boost domestic supply and check prices, Parliament was informed today.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan informed that 68,413 tonnes have been disposed of so far in the markets out of 1,30,608 tonnes seized during 14,177 raids on hoarders in 14 states.
Maharashtra has offloaded 57,167.28 tonnes so far out of 86,709.39 tonnes seized by the state government during 5,250 raids.
Karnataka has disposed of only 4,123.32 tonnes so far out of 25,545.82 tonnes seized.
"The High Court of Karnataka on November 23 declared the Department of Food and Civil Supplies' seizure of pulses stored by traders as "illegal" and ordered the release of pulses, edible oils and oilseeds from them", it said.
In reply to another question, Paswan said "rise in the prices of pulses and mustard oil are due to shortfall in production owing to adverse weather conditions, increased transportation costs, supply chain constraints like lack of storage facilities and hoarding and black marketing".
Pulses prices had crossed Rs 200 per kg in the retail market due to fall in production by two million tonnes to 17.2 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June).
However, rates have eased due to several measures taken by the government such as sale of imported pulses at subsidised rate, imposition of stock holding limits, raids on hoarders and creation of buffer stocks.
