As the daily average retail and wholesale prices of Tur in India are nearly 15% higher than they were a year ago, the Centre has dispatched senior officers to several states to interact with locals and observe the stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad.
In a statement released on Monday, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution stated, “Senior officers from the Department of Consumer Affairs visited ten locations in four states to interact with locals and observe the stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad.”
According to the statement, Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, met with the officers who visited key pulses markets and interacted with various market participants. In addition to the Secretary’s meeting with the All India Dal Mills Association in Indore on April 15, the Department sent 12 senior officers to various locations in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu to assess the situation on the ground.
It stated, “Interactions with ground-level market participants and state officials revealed that while the number of registrations and stock disclosures on the e-portal are rising, a substantial number of market participants have either not registered or have neglected to regularly update their stock positions.” It has been observed that stocks undergoing transactions, such as farmer’s stocks in mandis awaiting auction, stocks awaiting customs certification at ports, etc., are not monitored by the current system. In an effort to avoid stock declaration, millers and traders/dealers have resorted to holding their inventories in warehouses under the name of farmers, according to observations.
According to the statement, senior officers visited Indore, Chennai, Salem, Mumbai, Akola, Latur, Sholapur, Kalaburagi, Jabalpur, and Katni and spoke with state government officials, millers, merchants, importers, and port authorities. It was stated that they met with associations of millers, importers, and merchants.
In addition to the weekly review meetings conducted by the Committee for Stock Monitoring, which is chaired by Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, subsequent follow-up visits are being planned.
“The market participants were educated on the significance of stock declaration and asked to declare their stocks truthfully and regularly; otherwise, the State Government may take stringent action, such as seizure and confiscation of undeclared stocks,” the statement read.
