Patna, October 23
The Union Agricultural Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, today claimed that the rise in onion prices would be brought under control in next 10 days.
Addressing mediapersons, here Mr Pawar said that Nafed has already been asked by the Centre to import onions from Pakistan to meet the situation. His department would bear the cost in the event there was any loss in importing and marketing onions by the organisation.
Mr Pawar said that the sudden rainfall and related damage of crops in Maharashtra had resulted in this crisis, which he described as “temporary one”.
The Agricultural Minister said that with onions had started arriving from Alwar in Rajasthan and the same would soon start reaching from Karnataka, the situation would normalise in next ten days.
Mr Pawar rather apprehended that once onions from Rajasthan, Karnataka, followed by Bihar, flooded the market, the farmers might not get the price they expected as there would be more supply than the demand.
Mr Pawar scoffed at the NDA for criticising the UPA for the sudden hike of onion prices and said that the Centre had no interest in “onion politics” indulged by the NDA.
Mr Pawar also ruled out the possibility of any impact of the hike in onion prices on Bihar polls. “In Bihar it is Rs 15 per kg, much lower than other places,” he said.
