GUWAHATI: With a view to provide relief to consumers from the soaring prices of essential commodities such as onions and potatoes, the district administration has constituted five teams to check the prices of essential commodities in the city.
These teams comprise officials from the food and civil supplies department of the state government as well as the district administration.
Further, the team members will function under the charge of an executive magistrate and will be responsible for different localities across the city to bring down the prices.
Officials informed that the monitoring teams have already begun the process of checking and controlling the prices of onions and potatoes in the city. Under the process, officials from the food and civil supplies department function under the deputy commissioner in different districts.
Authorities mentioned that when prices of essential commodities surge, the deputy commissioner has the authority to take measures to bring down the prices, which are implemented through the food and civil supplies officers.
Officials at the food and civil supplies department informed that since it is an open market, it often happens that the prices of essential commodities fluctuate and the prices keep increasing or decreasing from time to time.
“We are not very concerned when the prices drop but when they rise, it causes problems for the consumers. It is also our responsibility to keep a check on the prices of essential goods and to prevent them from rising too steeply and thus such steps become mandatory for the departments to take,” informed Jyotish Das, an official of the food and civil supplies department.
Additionally, authorities said that the directorate of food and civil supplies has requested all the deputy commissioners across the state to constitute teams and develop a mechanism to moderate the prices.
The district magistrate is the only authority who is empowered to take action in matters concerning essential commodities, they added.
The city saw a steep rise in the prices of essential commodities, especially potatoes and onions over the past few weeks prompting authorities to take action.
Prices to be checked through Amar Dukan
Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (Metro), Virendra Mittal, told G Plus that the officials go to the field and particularly visit the important markets such as those located in Beltola, Sixmile, Ganeshguri, Ulubari, Supermarket and other significant markets.
He added that these inspecting teams randomly go and conduct surprise visits and check the vouchers and memos available with the retailers.
“If they find that the wholesalers or retailers are selling the goods at a price exceeding the price bracket set by the government, their stock is immediately seized by the officials,” said Mittal.
This stock is then sold through Amar Dukan at a controlled price. Amar Dukan are the notified fair price shops situated across the state under the public distribution system (PDS). These shops provide subsidized items under the PDS to ration card holders and also sell some other essential commodities at subsidized rates fixed by the state food and civil supplies department. There are a total of 106 Amar Dukan in Kamrup (Metro) district.
These fair price shops began functioning since 2011 in the state. They become useful when the government needs to monitor the prices of essential commodities when their prices soar making them unaffordable for the general public. These essential commodities include pulses, flour, onion, potatoes, different types of oils, soap, milk, and toothpaste among others.
As per the data of the food and civil supplies department, the price of onions at the beginning of the last year was Rs 18 while it went up to Rs 48 in January 2018. Further, the price of potatoes remained at a constant Rs 12 in January 2017 as well as at the beginning of 2018.
Potatoes are brought to Guwahati from places like Kolkata, Agra and Farrukhabad whereas onions are brought from Nasik, Bangalore and Patna, informed officials.
