HYDERABAD: The Civil Supplies department officials who have been deluged with distress calls following a steep hike in the price of onion — which went up to Rs. 14 a kg a few days back — are now facing a peculiar problem. There are no takers for the stocks lying with the fair price shops.

Abundant stocks

The department, which initially pumped in 1,000 tonnes of onion into the public distribution system when the prices increase, now finds that dealers of fair price shops are not able to sell more than 500 tonnes a day.

"When we are prepared to dump 1,000 tonnes a day in the FP shops, we are faced with a situation of no buyers. Since it is a perishable commodity we can't take the risk of overstocking," Civil Supplies Commissioner Bhanwarlal, told The Hindu .

Procurement

With the price going up, the department procured 1,000 tonnes of onions from Nasik, Kurnool and Karnataka, to meet the demand.

As there were not enough sales, the department was forced to cut down the daily supply to 200/400 tonnes to the FP shops.

The closing stocks each day at FP shops total 20/30 tonnes.

The department is announcing that onion was being at Rs.7 a kg through banners and TV scrolls.

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