Sale of onions and vegetable packs at subsidised prices will be extended to 96 Rythu Bazaars lying in other cities and district headquarters towns. It is now confined to nine Rythu Bazaars in the twin cities. The Government will bear a burden of Rs 10 per kg and make the onions available at Rs 20-24 a kg while the vegetable pack will be sold at Rs 99.

As a huge quantity of onions is required now, the stocks will be purchased from Maharashtra. This was decided at a meeting convened by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy discussed measures to control prices of essential commodities. Civil Supplies Minister D. Sridhar Babu said adequate funds had been provided to the Marketing and other departments under market intervention scheme to procure onions and vegetables.

Vegetable growers in the areas lying around cities, particularly Hyderabad, would be provided free transport through RTC to bring their produce to urban areas. The Minister said 14 lakh white ration cards in the State, identified as bogus following inspections by Civil Supplies officials, would be weeded out. At the same time, five out of seven lakh applicants of ration cards were found to be genuine and they would be issued cards-white or pink. He indicated that Rachchabanda, would be launched around January 23.

Published Date : Friday, 14/1/2011 2:47 PM IST