Former food and civil supply minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh has come down heavily on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government by blaming them for escalating the prices of pulses. He even took potshots at the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government over its claim of providing tur dal at Rs 100 per kg to the people.
“The government has failed to manage the situation and thus in the festive season of Diwali, people are forced to buy tur dal at Rs 180 to Rs 200 per kg. Also, in the state there is currently no mechanism to control the prices of food items,” he said.
The former minister pointed out that the stock limit imposed by the government was very late. In contrast, it created hurdles for the importers as they import in bulk, he said. “The government committed a blunder of taking such action on imported dal, as a result, the shipments of pulses were not off-loaded by importers fearing action. This also restricted supplies, creating shortage and further firming up of prices,” Mr Deshmukh explained.
He claimed that around 10-12 ships with imported tur dal were stranded for around 15 days due to the imposition of stock limit on the importer. “It was only when our party raised the issue, the government hurriedly withdrew its orders and removed restrictions on imported stock,” he told.
He said that during the previous Congress and NCP government, they had set up a monitoring cell to keep the market prices of food items in control. “This was the reason we were able to take timely action when dal prices shot up and immediately took timely corrective measures like imposing stock limits on dealers,” he said. He alleged that no such cell has been set up by the BJP-led government till now.
