Raids against hoarders by State governments continued on Tuesday with the Centre stating that over 80,000 tonnes of pulses had been seized so far, and will be made available in the retail market.
“Under de-hoarding operations, 8,394 raids have been conducted so far and 82,462.53 tonnes of pulses have been seized across the States,” an official statement by the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry said.
The raids had begun last week with prices of pulses, particularly tur (arhar), having breached the ₹200/ kg mark in Mysuru and Puducherry.
Officials had indicated earlier that the seized pulses included tur, urad and chana, but no data has been released regarding the quantities of each of the pulses that have been recovered.
“The States have indicated that seized stock of pulses will be made available in the retail markets within a week,” the statement added.
Various States have begun selling pulses through government outlets or through the public distribution system. These include Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
PTI adds: Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government is working out a mechanism for exempting importers of pulses from the ambit of stock holding limits.
Last week, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) had made a representation to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking exemption from stock holding limit imposed by the Centre on October 18 to check hoarding.
The Association had also offered to supply 100 tonnes of imported tur dal at ₹130/kg on a daily basis for a month to boost supply in the State.
The State government is scheduled to hold another round of meeting later in the day to finalise both the stock holding limit issue as well as purchase of imported tur dal from importers, sources added.
Gujarat has already relaxed norms for stock holding limits on importers in the State.
The Maharashtra government may also work out a model on similar lines, they said.
The average stock holding limit for importers is about 300-350 tonnes in States.