Arvind Kejriwal blames hoarding, commodity stock market for price rise

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday blamed “hoarding” and commodity stock market behind skyrocketing retail prices of pulses and questioned the Maharashtra government’s move to remove stock limits of pulses earlier this year, which has been recently reimposed.

“Maha and some dal producing states had stock limits. It was removed early this year. Why? It encouraged huge hoarding. Less dal production. Just one reason for rising dal prices – huge hoarding in dal producing states, and commodity stock market is also among 2 big factors,” Kejriwal tweeted.

The Maharashtra government has reimposed stock holding limits on pulses traders on October 19 to improve the supply in the state. It had withdrawn the limits on April 23 this year. Nearly 75,000 tonnes of pulses have been seized from hoarders in raids across 13 states as part of the measures to control the retail prices of dal that have touched up to Rs 210 per kg.

As per the Consumer Affairs Ministry’s data, retail prices touched as high as Rs 210/kg yesterday. Urad was selling at Rs 190/kg, moong dal at Rs 130/kg, masoor dal at Rs 110/kg and gram at Rs 85/kg.