Govt makes weekly disclosure of masur stock mandatory to check hoarding

Lentils at a grocery store in Mumbai (Reuters file image)

The Centre on September 6 issued an advisory, asking all the stakeholders to mandatorily disclose their masur or lentil stock on weekly basis, in a bid to check hoarding. The directive is to be followed with immediate effect, an official release noted.

"All the stakeholders should mandatorily disclose their Masur stock on stock disclosure portal (fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp) managed by the department on every Friday," it stated, further adding that any undisclosed stock, if found, "will be considered as hoarding" and action under the Essential Commodities Act would be initiated.

The advisory has been issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, during the weekly price review meeting, instructed the department to "broad-based the lentil buffer procurement", the release issued by the consumer affairs ministry noted.

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The objective is to procure available stocks at prices around the minimum support price, the ministry claimed.

This came at a time when NAFED and NCCF had to suspend their tenders to purchase imported lentils "due to exorbitantly high bids received from few suppliers amid hints of cartelisation", the release said.

Kumar, during the meeting, further stated that at the time when lentil import flow increases from Canada and tur imports from African countries, few players are trying to manipulate the market against the interest of the consumers.

The consumer affairs secretary noted that the government is watching the developments closely and would initiate "stringent measures" to get the stock released into the market so that availability of all pulses at reasonable prices in the festival season is ensured.

Balancing the interest of farmers and consumers is "paramount", and the government will initiate stern action against those trying to hurt the interests of either of them in an "unscrupulous manner", he noted.