CM Sarbananda Sonowal directs urgent steps to control onion prices

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal reviewed the functioning of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department at his conference room at Janata Bhawan on Saturday. He emphasized on strengthening of the department for effective public service delivery.

Saying that rising prices of onions was a matter of concern for the people and the government, Chief Minister Sonowal directed the Department to take effective and immediate steps for controlling the spiralling prices of the essential kitchen commodity.

As the Chief Minister was apprised about the possibility of procuring onion from National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and providing the same at controlled prices in the market, Sonowal instructed for taking necessary action in this regard so that state’s monthly onion requirement of around 60 thousand Metric Tonne could be met.

As per a press release, the meeting also approved the scheme of Rs 1 lakh each for more than 100 beneficiaries for setting up ‘Amar Dukan on Wheels’ (mobile fair price shops) as a step to encourage unemployed youth entrepreneurs of the state. Referring to the number of more than 38,000 existing fair price shops in the state, Sonowal stressed on the need to rationalise the number of shops which was more than required for the state’s population and providing alternative livelihood means for many existing fair shop owners.

The chief minister also directed the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to device a mechanism to generate self-employment opportunities for the rural youth through setting up of cold storage facilities and warehouses which could be run on Public Private Partnership mode. He also emphasised on the need to adopt latest technologies to plug the leakages in the public distribution system and make entire government mechanism transparent.

Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Principal Secretary of the Department Biswaranjan Samal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia were also present in the meeting among other officials of the concerned departments.

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