Onion rates burn, leaders play blame game fiddle

 ‘Ask traders about this. The government does not sell onions,’ Sibal said when asked about the increasing onion prices in the country.

Meanwhile, CPI leader D Raja called Sibal’s statement ‘very careless and insensitive’. Onion prices both in wholesale and retail markets in most parts of the country have seen a sharp increase since July.

The traders on their part have put the blame on the Ganesh puja celebrations in Maharashtra for the sharp rise in demand. Sources in Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee, the country’s largest wholesale market in Nashik, said that approximately 6,500 quintals of onions were sold over the weekend to cater to the festive season demand.

Meanwhile, the Sheila Dikshit-led government in the national capital, where the retail prices of onion have been as high as Rs 80 per kg, has squarely blamed the Madhya Pradesh government for the spike in prices.

Delhi’s food and civil supplies minister Haroon Yusuf alleged that the Madhya Pradesh government must have hoarded onions at the behest of the BJP’s Delhi unit. ‘There is hoarding in Madhya Pradesh. The Delhi BJP would have told Madhya Pradesh government to hoard onions to win the coming elections in Delhi,’ he alleged. While also blaming heavy rains in south India, which have affected the movement of onion-laden trucks, the minister pleaded his helplessness in containing the sky-rocketing prices.