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Bengal

CM slams Centre over hike in onion prices

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the Centre for holding its policy of "unlimited export of onion", which in turn is responsible for the hike in onion prices.
In a tweet on Thursday evening, the Chief Minister stated: "By encouraging unlimited export of onions, the Central Government has created a huge crisis in the domestic market leading to skyrocketing of onion prices."
Stating the quantity of onion that is exported, she maintained in the tweet: "In 2016, export of onions was 7 LMT. In 2017, it went up to 12 LMT. Now, to defuse the crisis, the Central Government is planning to import onions."
Criticising the Centre for such an unplanned move, Banerjee stated: "Imagine the farce and how such an unplanned action has
put the common people in great distress. 'Look before you leap' seems to be a forgotten thing now." It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had attacked the Centre when it announced the demonetisation of high currency notes and again when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced.
There has been a hike in onion price over the past few weeks. It was being sold at around Rs 60 to Rs 70 in different markets of the city.
According to the traders, the scarce supply of onions in the market has led to its price hike. They also anticipated that its price would go further up.
It may be mentioned that the state government has controlled the price of potato. In a bid to ensure that hoarding of potato didn't lead to an unnecessary price hike, the state had announced that potatoes can be stocked in cold storages only till November 30.
The state government has extended the timeline by 15 days following which the traders will have to pay Rs 12 to store a quintal of potato.
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