Hyderabad, August 09: Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has given the green signal to the vigilance and enforcement department to intensify raids on hoarders and black marketeers in order to bring down prices of essential commodities in the open market.
The chief minister held discussions on the price situation with Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement SK Jayachandra and other senior officials concerned at his Begumpet camp office today and instructed them to take all measures to ensure that no stocks of essentials were hoarded by traders.
“Government is determined to bring down the prices by intensifying surprise and constant raids on hoarders and black marketeers.
We are also determined to eliminate middlemen or brokers to ensure that essential commodities are made available in adequate quantities at reasonable prices,’’ he said.
Reddy further instructed officials to move goods from one place to another in accordance with demand and supply to keep prices under check and also resort to market interventions as and when required. District collectors have already been instructed to inspect the State Warehousing Corporation, Central Warehousing Corporation, agriculture market committees and other godowns to verify whether any stocks of superfine paddy were stocked in benami names by middlemen, millers and traders, and to unearth the same.
The State Government had imported 52,000 tonnes of red gram from Myanmar
to supply to white ration card holders through the public distribution system, he added. Of ficials informed the chief minister that the red gram would also be available from East African countries by October 2009, and the Indian crop would come to the market in January 2010.
Meanwhile, paddy worth Rs 234.5 crore and red gram worth Rs 5.6 crore was seized by the vigilance and enforcement department, and 145 cases under the Essential Commodities Act were booked during the last three months.
–Agencies–