VIJAYAWADA: Serpentine queues were seen in front of an onion stall at the Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazar in Vijayawada, after the district administration started providing onions at the subsidised rate of `25 per kg from Thursday afternoon.District Collector A Md Imtiaz and Joint Collector V Madhavi Latha, along with marketing officials, started the stall, for which 112 quintals of onion were brought from Kurnool.
However, each person has been limited to take only one kg onion. The initiative proved to be a hit with almost over 100 people lining for onions at the time of opening.
B Venkata Padma, a citizen of Krishna Lanka said, “The price of onions had gone up to `50 in rythu bazaars, rendering it difficult for us to purchase these. It is a good initiative taken up by the officials of providing onions at a subsidised rate but they are only providing one kilogram. We take autorickshaw to come this far for buying vegetables. If only one kg per person is given, it costs nearly the same as compared to the retail price. It will be useful if they provide at least two kg per person.”
“This subsidy stall will be available until the price gets normalised. Apart from the produce from Kurnool, onions from Nasik of Maharashtra have been made available in the markets. The marketing department will be bearing the additional expense and supply the onions at `25 per kg. Vigilance teams have been formed, who will take part in identifying the stock holding points and those involved with black markets. Then they will take action against those, who have been hoarding stocks to raise the prices,” said Imtiaz.
The onion prices in Vijayawada rythu bazar decreased from `47 to `42 on Thursday. The Maharashtra variety is being sold at regular price.
Due to the recent floods, there was severe crop damage, which resulted in shortage of onion supply. According to the officials, in the next two days, arrangements will be made to acquire adequate stock from Maharashtra.
‘Adequate stock to arrive in two days’
District Collector A Md Imtiaz and Joint Collector V Madhavi Latha and officials of marketing department started a stall at Swaraj Maidan rythu bazar in Vijayawada. Here, onions will be sold at `25 per kg. For this, 112 quintals of onions have been brought from Kurnool. According to officials, in next two days, adequate stock from Maharashtra will be arranged