NEW DELHI: Amid farmer protests in Maharashtra against a hike in duty on onion exports, the Centre on Tuesday said that it will procure two lakh tonnes of onion at the rate of Rs 2,410 per quintal from various centers in the state.
Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde after talks with Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in New Delhi over said the procurement will give necessary relief and the government will ensure that the onion prices do not crash.
Unimpressed by the government decision, the Opposition demanded immediate withdrawal of hike in export duty and said the government’s decision to procure two lakh tonnes will do little as 18 tonnes of the rabi crop is lying in the market.
NDA ally Prahar Janshakti Party MLA Bacchu Kadu, who has also come out in support of farmers, alleged that the government becomes “impotent” when it comes to the farmers’ issue as they “fail” to provide required relief whenever the growers are in crisis.
The alliance came out in public over the onion issue on Monday. Meanwhile, onion politics brought the differences between Maha Yuti alliance partners – BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar) – to the public. While CM Eknath Shinde tried to defend his minister Dada Bhuse for his controversial statement, ‘not to eat onion if you cannot afford to buy it’, deputy CM Ajit Pawar said that they will reprimand the minister and will ask not make such statement.