New Delhi: The central government on Thursday launched the first phase of selling onions at a subsidized price of Rs 35 per kg. Yesterday’s initiative started to relieve consumers in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, where onion prices have been rising.
Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, Pralhad Joshi, flagged off mobile vans from the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). These mobile vans will sell onions at the lower price, as part of the government's efforts to release onions from buffer stocks to control prices.
Currently, onions are being sold for over Rs 60 per kg in many parts of the national capital. NCCF and NAFED, which hold a buffer stock of 4.7 lakh tonnes of onions for the government, will sell them through mobile vans and at their retail outlets in Delhi-NCR, as well as in Mumbai's Parel and Malad areas.
Additionally, onions will be available at the subsidized rate through e-commerce platforms, Kendriya Bhandar, and Mother Dairy's Safal outlets.
After launching the initiative, Minister Joshi said that onion sales will expand across more cities as prices change. "The second phase will begin next week and cover cities like Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Raipur. A nationwide sale will follow in the third week of September," he added.
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He emphasized that controlling food inflation is a priority for the government, with recent efforts helping to stabilize prices.
Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare highlighted that onion availability looks promising in the coming months. The area sown with onions in the current season has significantly increased to 2.9 lakh hectares, up from 1.94 lakh hectares last year. About 38 lakh tonnes of onions are also still in storage with farmers and traders, which is expected to further stabilize supply and prices.
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