Onions hovering at Rs 70 a kilo or crossing it at retail markets in Ranchi have prompted the district administration on Wednesday to swing into action and prevent black-marketing and hoarding of this essential commodity.

Ranchi subdivisional officer Amit Kumar on Wednesday raided the premises of wholesale dealers of onions across Pandra market yard in the outskirts of the city. But, no cases of hoarding beyond permissible limits have been found till this report was filed at 5pm.

"According to state government norms, no trader can hoard onion more than 500 quintals. Our raids in around dozens of business premises showed maximum stocks of 250 to 300 quintals. So, we can say there is no hoarding of the commodity, so far" Kumar told The Telegraph.

Along with onions, the SDO's team is also on the look out for hoarding of pulses whose prices have also skyrocketed, with arhar crossing the Rs 140-per-kilo mark and no variety available below Rs 100.

Like in the case of onions, the state government has said it is illegal to hoard pulses beyond 500 quintal.

"So far they had found one trader stocking 4,000 quintals of pulses at one Durga Mill," the SDO said. "We will take action against the erring trader after the raids are over," he added.

Local markets on Wednesday kept the price of onion between Rs 60 and Rs 70 per kilo. Reliance Fresh outlets sold onions for Rs 72 a kilo.

A wholesale trader told The Telegraph that onions were sold at Rs 5,500 per quintal. "As the crop from Nashik in Maharashtra was too insufficient this year, Jharkhand is getting supply of onions from Andhra Pradesh whose quality is also not good," said S.L. Gupta, a leading wholesale trader in Ranchi. "In retail markets, the per-kilogram price is Rs 15 more than wholesale, which is largely due to the fact that among the consignment that we get, a lot of rotten onions are found."

He claimed there was no black-marketing or hoarding in the city. "We are getting consignments late from Andhra Pradesh markets."

"After reports of Nashik onions getting destroyed earlier this year, the Union government should have prevented exports. Then, the domestic market would not have suffered," Gupta added.

"We are waiting for fresh stocks of onion from Nashik in the next 15 days. Prices will fall after that," Gupta hoped.

Right now, potato, selling for Rs 10 to Rs 12 per kilogram at retail markets in the capital, seems to be the mainstay for kitchens where onions and pulses are too hot to handle.

The wholesale price of potatoes is around Rs 300 per 50kg sack.