Cuttack, Oct. 15: Arhar dal has crossed the Rs 200-a-kg mark, only to heighten the home-maker's despair.

The retail rate of the dal had crossed Rs 100-a-kg in the first week of May. After making a steady climb in August, it touched Rs 150 per kg in September.

And now, it is being sold at Rs 170 to Rs 180.

Home-maker Alaka Patnaik said: "This is severely skewing our budget, as we can't do without arhar dal."

All Odisha Byabasayee Sangh general secretary Sudhakar Panda said: "The rate of pulses is not under our control, or for that matter, of the state government."

Food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma said the hike in dal price was a national phenomenon, and Odisha was dependent on other states for procurement of the pulses. "The dal production came down by 25 per cent this year due to moisture stress, which has resulted in price hike at the national level. The situation is expected to improve by November 15," he said.

Das Burma said the state government had written to the Centre urging it to provide dal through the Metal and Mineral Trading Corporation. Besides, the Centre had been requested to release Rs 50 crore as a revolving fund. The state government has also asked the district collectors to intensify enforcement.

The wholesale price of arhar dal per quintal reportedly went up today to Rs 18,300 at Raipur, Rs 19,000 in Maharastra and Rs 20,000 at Gulbarga (Karnataka).

Panda said the new crop was expected after a month and the stock in arhar-producing states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharastra was almost getting used up. "In this situation, arhar dal was becoming costlier due to monopoly of the big players, who are sourcing it from Myanmar, Turkey and Tanzania as well as deciding its prices. It is unfortunate that the central government is apparently not intervening and monitoring their activities," he said.

Odisha being a consuming state has a daily requirement of around 1,000 metric tonnes of arhar dal, which it gets from supply chains in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Panda said: "Procurement of arhar dal for the state had gone down to nearly 500 metric tonnes per day as it was becoming costlier and the consumption level was going down with the rise in retail rate over the past few months."

Cuttack Chamber of Commerce secretary Srikant Sahu said: "At Malgodown, the wholesale mandi from where arhar dal is supplied to 18 districts, it is available at Rs 15,000 to Rs 17,000 per quintal depending on the quality and its retail price is Rs 170 to 180 per kg."

"Earlier, around 45 trucks loaded with arhar dal used to reach Malgodown everyday. Now, the number has reduced to one due to high procurement cost," he said.