Centre deliberately creating scarcity of onion: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi : The AAP-led Delhi government on Sunday accused the Centre of deliberately creating scarcity of onion in the national capital by not releasing it despite having enough stock.

Delhi's deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia claimed that the central government had on September 5 said it had 56,000 metric tonne onion "but surprisingly the central government has stopped giving it to Delhi government".

The onion prices have skyrocketed to Rs 75-120 per kg across major cities in the country. Sisodia urged the central government to release 10 trucks of onion everyday, saying "we are well prepared with the complete machinery to sell onions at a lower price".

"Though the rates of onion have increased in entire country and people are unhappy across the country, but it appears that in Delhi central government is deliberately creating the scarcity of onion. Delhi government is asking for onions but the central government is not giving. Central government has stopped giving onion to the Delhi government.

"Since the rate of onions started increasing, on September 5, Central government had written a letter to the Delhi government that they had 56,000 metric tonne onion stoked and we could take it from them. Delhi government had said it could take 10 trucks onion on daily basis and sell it in the national capital so that its hoarding could be stopped," Sisodia said.

He claimed that the Delhi government had requested the Centre to give onion till December 9 which would have approximately been 2.50 lakh kgs. One truck carries 25,000 kgs onion, he said. "We kept asking for 10 trucks but they gave two, three or four trucks of onion, maximum it went up to five on certain dates, even though the Centre had 56,000 metric tonne onion.

"We can sell ten trucks onion on daily basis in Delhi, but surprisingly the central government has stopped giving it to us. I want to ask why it has stopped giving onion. What happened to the stock they had claimed to have? Start giving 10 vehicles onion and we will sell it. We have entire machinery ready to sell ten vehicles.

"Not giving onion means that the central government wants to increase the rates here. The last truck had come on November 24. The single truck that came on November 24 was a smaller one carrying merely around 13,000 kgs. Where is the stock of onions that the union government claimed in writing on 5 September? Why the Union government allows huge onion stock to be rotten away," he said.