With the retail price of onions soaring to a record Rs 90 a kg in the national capital,
Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Wednesday sttributed the exorbitant rates to a ‘monopoly’ of wholesale traders in the absence of amendment to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act. The previous record high of retail prices was in 2010 when it touched Rs 85 per kg.
‘The onion crisis would not have blown out of proportion had Delhi and some other states amended the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act by now,’ observed Chopra. ‘The Delhi government has not amended the APMC Act and as a result there is a ‘monopoly of wholesale traders’, he noted.
‘We have fixed number of wholesale traders against an infinite number of suppliers and consumers. The amendment to the APMC Act could have encouraged more players and competition,’ he said.
Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Wednesday sttributed the exorbitant rates to a ‘monopoly’ of wholesale traders in the absence of amendment to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act. The previous record high of retail prices was in 2010 when it touched Rs 85 per kg.
‘The onion crisis would not have blown out of proportion had Delhi and some other states amended the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act by now,’ observed Chopra. ‘The Delhi government has not amended the APMC Act and as a result there is a ‘monopoly of wholesale traders’, he noted.
‘We have fixed number of wholesale traders against an infinite number of suppliers and consumers. The amendment to the APMC Act could have encouraged more players and competition,’ he said.