Even as the central government announced an increase in buffer stock for pulses to 8 lakh tonnes, escalating prices of urad, toor, gram and kabuli gram remained a cause for concern, said a report in the Times of India. After a high-powered ministerial team headed by union minister Arun Jaitley met in the capital on Wednesday, the government decided to increase the buffer stocks to 8 lakh tonnes as against the original target of 1.5 lakh tonnes to control the prices.
The government has also decided to import pulses from Myanmar and some African countries. However, the Food Ministry was sceptical even on Thursday about immediate relief from the skyrocketing prices as the states are not showing much enthusiasm for procuring pulses from the buffer stock.The government has so far prepared a stock of 1.15 lakh tonnes and is also offloading pulses to the states for retail distribution at a cheaper rate.
The centre has urged states to procure pulses from the buffer stock at a subsidised rate of ₹66 per kg and sell in retail markets at ₹120 per kg. On Wednesday, union food and distribution minister Ram Vilas Paswan had flagged the state, saying, "In a federal structure, states also have their responsibility." Over 10,000 tonnes have been released to the states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, for retail distribution so far.
According to the food ministry's data, the maximum retail price of urad has shot up to ₹196 per kg, while for toor it was at ₹166 per kg, official sources said here on Thursday.
The wholesale price for the smaller variety of kabuli gram increased to touch ₹8,000-9,500 per quintal. Other special brands of gram also shot up significantly in the last few days, the food ministry sources said.The retail price for moong remained at ₹120 per kg and for masoor the price ranged around ₹105 per kg.
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Meanwhile, sources said gram shortages have resulted in the rise in its retail price of around ₹94 per kg while the wholesale price in Delhi market jumped to ₹700 per quintal. There have been reports of speculative buying by stockists, sources said. In the wholesale market, the price of gram increased to ₹7,000-7,500 from ₹6,300-6,950 per quintal.
The wholesale price of urad rose to ₹10,600-12,100; the price of small variety masoor increased to ₹6,050-6,350 and that of toor notched up to ₹9,200 per quintal
