NEW DELHI: The AAP government today accused NAFED of giving a "misleading" statement on prices of onions, a charge which was denied by the Centre.
"It is shocking that NAFED, which had asked Delhi government in its letter dated July 24, 2015, to make an advance payment in case it wanted to buy onions procured by NAFED at Nashik, is now misleading the public by allowing the political nominees to give confusing statements," Delhi government said in a statement.
It said that National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) had informed in its letter that "arrangement for transportation of onions from the storage points at Nashik to the desired destinations shall be made available by the state governments.
"NAFED shall not be responsible for any deterioration in quality and storage loss."
A senior Delhi government official said it has already procured good quality onions from Nashik through Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) –- which is a society sponsored by the Centre's Department of Agriculture and Cooperation.
The official also said that Delhi government would like to know from NAFED whether it was ready to sell good quality onions to any state at a rate different from any other central government-mandated procurement agency.
"If that is the case, Delhi government asks NAFED to make public the reasonable price at which it is willing to sell good quality onions at Delhi (and not Nashik) so that the stock can be easily procured by the government of Delhi.
"It was reported in a section of media that NAFED that initiated the process of dispatching onions to the Delhi market on July 28. "Later, NAFED itself clarified that on instructions from the Centre, it would supply onions procured under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) to eight major cities in the country, which surprisingly did not include Delhi," the official added.
However, refuting the the Delhi government's allegation, a senior central government official said, "SFAC is procuring onions for Delhi. They have procured about 10,000 tonnes of onions for the national capital, including 2,500 tonnes on behalf of Delhi government."