ROURKELA: Onion is fast vanishing from kitchens of the city residents with prices marking a steep rise over the last 10 days. While the good quality onion is being sold at Rs 40 per kg, the inferior one is priced at Rs 35 per kg. Again, the abrupt rise in onion price is attributed to the short supply from Nashik in Maharashtra.
A roadside retailer claimed that with the wholesale price at Rs 35, he is selling onion for Rs 40 per kg as in a bag of 50 kg, at least 10 per cent gets damaged. The prices have continued to go up by Rs 4-5 per kg in every 4-5 days, reaching Rs 40 on date. The city needs around 130-150 quintals of onion daily and majority of the supply is catered from Maharashtra.
Apart from onion, the price of potato too has gone up as some retailers were selling it for Rs 20 per kg, a hike of Rs 8 in a fortnight. Sundargarh Civil Supplies Officer (CSO) A Barik said a meeting with the onion wholesalers will be called and necessary steps would be taken to keep the prices under control.
Former president of Rourkela District Congress Committee Biren Senapati, however, alleged the price rise was being abetted by local civil supplies authorities in connivance with unscrupulous traders. The CSO has marketing intelligence personnel to keep track of any abnormal price hike, but they would not act. The delay in taking action is designed to benefit unscrupulous traders, he alleged.