Onions for Rs 35/kg: Govt begins sales through PDS shopsChennai: The state govt has launched the sale of onions at a subsidised price of Rs 35 per kg, as announced in the assembly last week, to contain the recent rise in prices and ease the burden on consumers. Onions are sold for of Rs 55 to Rs 60 in the retail market.The initiative, undertaken by the Cooperation, Food and Consumer Protection Department on the instructions of chief minister C Joseph Vijay, will see onions sold through 8,914 outlets across the State from Thursday.In the first phase, the govt has procured 1,000 metric tonnes of onions from Nashik in Maharashtra through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF). Uder the scheme, each family cardholder will be eligible to buy one kg of onion at Rs 35. The onions will be sold through fair price shops in urban areas, district consumer cooperative wholesale stores, primary cooperative stores, retail outlets operated by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation and Farm Fresh outlets.The sale was launched in Chennai on Thursday by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Venkataramanan and Cooperation Minister V Gandhirajan at a fair price shop on TTK Road functioning under the Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society. The government said the market intervention was aimed at ensuring the availability of quality onions at affordable prices and checking the impact of rising open-market prices, particularly on poor and middle-class families.Food and civil supplies minister Venkatramanan had recently informed the assembly that the state will procure and sell onions consumers at Rs 35 per kg, while responding to opposition leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s calling attention motion about the steep rise in prices of essential commodities and perishables in the last 100 days.
