Government's 40K ton to pull pulse prices back to normal

New Delhi :-Delhi government said that pulses will buy 40,000 tonnes from farmers to create a resistance stock for controlling prices, which have grown up to Rs 190 per kg in the retail markets. The Delhi government will purchase 30,000 tonnes of tur dal and 10,000 tonnes of urad dal from farmers at market rates, Agriculture Minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan said to reporters today. In order to give relief to common man, he said the Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy’s Safal market would sell imported tur at Rs 120-130 per kg in Delhi. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have also started selling imported lentils. Earlier this week, an inter-ministerial group decided to create a resistance stock of pulses preferably through imports. The Group also decided to use the Price Stabilization Fund to boost supply and check prices. Cooperative Nafed will be given funds from the PSF, managed by the Agriculture Ministry, to buy pulses. The resistance stock will be offloaded to provide relief to consumers from rising prices, the minister said. On imports, Balyan said the government through state-owned MMTC has imported 5,000 tonnes of tur. It will soon finalize the contracts for importing additional 2,000 tonnes of tur. The minister said there is shortage of pulses in the global market and prices too have increased. “The price increase in the domestic market is mainly due to shortage in production owing to poor rainfall. Private traders are taking advantage of this situation,” he said.