The Malgodown market in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 12: The district administration has decided to carry out special measures to keep a tab on the stock and sale of various essential commodities at Malgodown, one of the biggest wholesale markets in the state.

The district administration plans to closely monitor the stock of essential commodities, including food grains and other items, to prevent artificial scarcity.

The move comes in the wake of a rumour regarding salt scarcity that led to panic buying among people in various parts of the state, including Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, yesterday. “We have decided to prepare an inventory to record the stock and subsequent sale of essential commodities so that no trader can create artificial scarcity which will lead to a panic situation among the people,” said collector Girish S.N.

The process to identity traders selling various essential commodities at Malgodown has already begun. Officials will make periodic assessments of the stock available with traders at regular intervals. Sources said the district administration was planning to go for record verification of the available stock of rice, dal, edible oil, sugar and other commodities at least twice a month.

More than 1,000 traders, including 280 major wholesale traders, do business of more than Rs 50 crore a day at Malgodown. Market sources said around 60 to 100 trucks were engaged in loading and unloading of goods on a daily basis.

Besides, a number of subsidiary units for storage of essential commodities have also come up at Jagatpur and Gopalpur on the city outskirts and stocks at such godowns will also be verified at regular intervals.

Malgodown traders and the Cuttack Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the decision of the district administration to go for periodic check of the existing stock of essential commodities in the interest of the consumers.

“We have already started to submit a detailed list of the stock available with the wholesalers and traders engaged in the sale of various commodities at Malgodown,” said joint secretary of the Cuttack Chamber of Commerce Srikant Sahu.