Onions to sell below Rs 24/kg from today, says Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Delhi government will sell onions at Rs 23.90 per kg in the city from Saturday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Friday.

Mr Kejriwal said onions will be sold at 400 ration shops and through 70 mobile vans in all the Assembly constituencies in the national capital. Each person will be entitled to a maximum of five kg and the sale points will operate from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. The chief minister said that in retail, onion is currently being sold at Rs 60-80 per kg.

The government will procure 1 lakh kg onions from the Centre over the next five days, he said.

To bring the onion prices under control, the Delhi government has decided to procure onions from the Central Buffer Stock Exchange through NAFED and sell it at a retail price of Rs 23.90 per kg, starting tomorrow, Mr Kejriwal said.

He said that the Delhi government would procure onions at Rs 15.60 per kg from the Central government.

Mr Kejriwal said that the government would send a team of two officials to Nasik in Maharashtra to ensure that the quality of onions supplied to Delhi is saleable and to conduct a pre-dispatch inspection of stocks.

Briefing the media about the scheme, the chief minister said, “We will procure 1 lakh kg onions from the Centre daily for the first five days. We will decide on the further requisitions based on the sale and consumption of onions in these five days. We will continue with this move till the prices of onions stabilise.” Delhi food and civil supplies minister Imran Khan and the Price Stabilisation Fund Committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary will supervise the implementation of the move.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari alleged that the Delhi government was trying to make profits by selling onions at Rs 23.90 despite procuring it at Rs 15.60 per kg. MP and former Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said that Delhi’s chief minister has been sleeping on the issue of the rising prices of onion in Delhi for the last one week.

He said that he recently met the Cabinet minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan, who complained that the problem of onions in Delhi is because Mr Kejriwal is not picking up onions from the Central government for the last one week.

Mr Goel said Mr Kejriwal has himself agreed that since the past several days he is being questioned on the rising prices of onions but he did not take any action for the same, whereas the prices of onion has been on the rise since September 19.

Mr Goel questioned why Mr Kejriwal, who is making daily free announcements due to the upcoming elections, is now selling onions at a profit of Rs 8 per kg to the public.