State to supply onions at subsidised price: Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao

Visakhapatnam: Excessive rains impacted the onion yield not just in Andhra Pradesh but across the country for the past few months, Fisheries Minister Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao said here on Friday.

Speaking to media, the Minister said the government was taking necessary steps to provide onions at subsidized rate by tying up with the Marketing Department and ensuring its availability at 85 Rythu Bazaars across the state.

The Minister said steps were taken to curb hoarding and procuring onions from Kurnool, Nanded and other regions for Rs 60 to Rs 50 a kg and make them available for the consumers at Rs 25 a kg in Rythu Bazaars. He said that about 673 metric tonnes of onions were procured from different regions to make them available to the consumers.

For the past few days, 470 metric tonnes of onions were sold at Rs 25 a kg at Rythu Bazaars, he added. With the situation expected to remain the same for another month, Mopidevi assured that the State government will continue to provide onions to consumers on subsidised price. He said steps to this effect would be taken by involving National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd, Marketing Department among others.

"45,000 metric tonnes a month will be sourced from other regions and supplied to consumers at Rythu Bazaars at subsidised rate. Marketing department has readied a strategy to sell about 150 metric tonnes a day," he informed. The Minister came down heavily on the comments of Rajya Sabha MP Sujana Chowdary that some YSRCP leaders were in touch with the BJP.