Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: The state government today said it was taking steps to get Rs 50 crore interest-free advance from the Centre's Price Stabilisation Fund for market intervention.

"We will utilise the advance for purchasing onion and other essential commodities at the harvest time and keep buffer stock for the lean period," food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma told theAssembly.

The minister made a statement in the House in response to concerns expressed by the members of both the Opposition and the treasury benches over the skyrocketing price of dal and onion. While dal is selling at Rs 140 per kg, onion is priced at Rs 60 per kg.

Das Burma said the state government had requested the National Agriculture Marketing Co-operative Federation (Nafed) to intimate the prevailing price of onion and send 2,000 metric tonnes of onion to the trade centres in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Rourkela and Jeypore from its Nasik depot. Nafed has not responded yet, he said.

Though onion is grown in Balangir, Angul and Kalahandi, the state faces scarcity of the tuber due to lack of adequate cold storages. It, therefore, depends on Maharashtra for supply of onion throughout the year, while the tuber supply comes from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh between July and December. This year, the scarcity has cropped up due to heavy rain in Maharashtra and deficient rain in Karantaka and Andhra Pradesh, said the minister.

Similarly, dal is procured from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and as Odisha is not self-sufficient in pulses production. "The dal price registered 25 per cent rise this year due to deficient rain in the producing states. Even arhar dal has become dearer by 71 per cent in comparison to the previous year," said Das Burma, adding that he had raised the issue at the food supplies ministers' conference held in New Delhi on July 7 and sought the Centre's help.

Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra, who alleged that the state government had been a mute spectator while the consumers were left in the lurch, today raised the issue in the Assembly during Zero Hour. He urged the Speaker to direct the food supplies minister to make a statement in the House. BJP legislature party leader Basanta Kumar Panda and other members supported him. BJD chief whip Ananta Das and other ruling party members described the price rise of dal and onion as "national phenomenon" and argued that the state government had nothing to do with it.