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| Potatoes being sold a market in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture |
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11: The state government has started selling potatoes through public distribution system (PDS) at a reasonable rate, as Bengal has stopped tuber supply for the past four days.
In retail market, the price of potato has gone past Rs 35 per kilogram in the city as well as in most parts of the state.
However, the government PDS shops at block headquarters and different towns are selling potato at Rs 20 per kilogram with a ceiling of two kg for each person.
Food supply and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Kumar Das Burma said that Bengal chief minister was scheduled to hold a meeting with agitating traders tomorrow and hoped that the meeting would resolve the deadlock. “As the traders have been protesting there, the supply of potato to Odisha has stopped for the past few days. Tomorrow’s discussion will hopefully end the ban on supply and subsequent shortage of potato in the state,” said the minister.
Das Burma, however, said people should not panic, as the state has enough potato stocked in cold storages.
“The district collectors have been told to control the situation and not to allow hoarding. The collectors of those districts having no cold storages have been told to procure potato from neighbouring districts and sell through PDS outlets,” he said.
The traders say that minuscule amount of potato comes to the city through various routes and are sold at higher rates.
Secretary of the Odisha Byabasayee Mahasagha Sudhakar Panda said that no potato truck arrived in the city today. Retail traders said they were forced to sell potato at higher rate due to short supply. “We get potato at Rs 29 per kg and are forced to sell it at Rs 32 to Rs 35. We know it hurts customers, but we are helpless,” said Subodh Behera, a trader. The traders even blamed the state government for the potato shortage that has been recurring time and again. They complained that the state government was not taking proper steps to sort out the matter or taking the matter with the central government.
