Ahead of Diwali government try Gram and sugar prices.

MUMBAI: The state government must have learnt lesson from the last year tur dal episode, where chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was also face flak from its partner Shiv Sena just before Diwali. The state food and civil supply department this year decided to monitor and control the prices of gram (chana) and sugar, at least for the next three weeks ahead of Diwali festival.

The food and civil supplies department started keeping an eye on the stockiest who might be the reason for artificial scarcity during festive season. "We will keep an eye on stockiest. The government will have meeting with big players and will try to keep control over the prices of Gram and sugar," said a senior bureaucrat.

The prices of Gram is in increasing trend but it should not go above our limit. The gram prices per kilo could be Rs 100 to maximum Rs 120 and not more than that. At the same time, sugar should not go beyond Rs 39 per kg," added an official. As of now the market prices for Gram and Tur dal are ranging between Rs 110 to Rs 150 per Kg whereas, the price of sugar is ranging between Rs 40 to Rs 50 per Kg.

The Government of India imports Gram during the November, every year so it may come in next month while the local production will arrive in the markets in December. So the government will have to take precaution to ensure that the prices do not rise for the next three weeks.

Last year, the prices of tur dal were shoot up over Rs 200 during before Diwali and the state government had to struggle to control over the pulses price. Senior Sena Ministers Subhash Desai, Ramdas Kadam and others had submitted a memorandum to the DM asking him to take immediate steps to curb the prices of tur dal and other essential commodities. The government then had stepped in and seized about 40,000 metric tonnes of tur dal and sealed some dal mills and godowns in the state.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com