Govt will not tolerate any artificial crisis of food items, Sushanta Chowdhury

In the ongoing Monsoon season,  the state has sufficient days of stock of all essential items and the government will tolerate any kind of artificial crisis and hoarding of essential items, said Food and Civil Supply Minister Sushanta Chowdhury.

 The state government in order to control the high inflation of essential items across markets of the state city and hoarding by a section of traders despite adequate stocks across the state, has called a meeting of the leaders of all merchant associations of Agartala city based wholesale and retail markets along with all officials of Food department and other administration officials at Civil Secretariat on Wednesday, which was chaired by Food and Civil Supply Minister Sushanta Chowdhury.

The agenda of the meeting was to verify the real stock of all essential items available in the market, to stop the artificial crisis of food items in the ongoing Monsoon season and to adopt concrete measures to stop any kind of hoarding.

While speaking in the meeting, Minister Chowdhury said that the state government is relentlessly working for the welfare of the state's people and keeping constant alert to reduce the suffering of the common masses. He said that taking the advantages of Monsoon season and road blockade in some parts of national highway in Meghalaya connecting Tripura due to heavy rain, some errant traders are trying to create an artificial crisis in the market to continue their hoarding, but government will not tolerate any such kind of activities and will take stringent measures to ease the suffering of common people.

He said that at present the state has sufficient stocks of food items including rice stock for 86 days, wheat for 57 days, salt for 28 days, and sugar for 24 days in the public distribution system (PDS). Similarly, in the markets, there are stocks of rice for 47 days, pulses for 42 days, edible oil 112 days, potatoes for 47 days, Atta (wheat flour) 63 days, sugar for 35 days and salt for 50 days, so there should not be any kind of artificial crisis, said the minister.

He alerted the traders and said that the task force of the Food department will continuously maintain their surveillances in all markets. He also urged the leaders of the trade unions that they should maintain proper cash memos during purchase and selling of items.

He also ordered the officials of the department to regularly update all stocks available in the markets and if there is any scarcity notice, then immediate measures should be taken to maintain the stock limits.

Chowdhury said that since the beginning of Monsoon season the prices of all necessary items are being artificially hiked by some errant traders for hoarding. ‘Our teams monitor each and every shop of the markets and review the wholesale and retail prices’, said Chowdhury and added that Food officials have noticed  many discrepancies  in prices of wholesale and retail, but the situation of all markets is under control.

He said that a section of traders are creating artificial crises in the market by hiking prices of rice and other edible items for their own interest and creating a panic in the markets. The department has issued  strict warning to all errant traders and there are no shortages of any essential items and all items are available in the markets, said Chowdhury, adding that stringent legal action would be taken against errant traders if they noticed any artificial crisis in the market or exorbitant rates .