Bengal Govt directs for cold storage of veggies to control prices

West Bengal government is trying to take measures to control prices of vegetables during the upcoming festive season. The state agriculture marketing minister Tapan Dasgupta has directed cold storage owners in the state to offload their entire by November in a move to rein in prices of potatoes, onions and other vegetables.

The minister said that this will automatically cool prices of potatoes and onions within next few days. There is a general tendency of a price hike during the festive season as demand picks up. Unscrupulous traders generally want to take advantage of this high demand scenario and jack up prices. But if there is ample supply of tubers and onions in the market then prices do not go up.

According to the minister, there are 544 cold storages across the state and in every cold storage officers will give surprise visits to take stock of the situation. At the same time, they will also visit the markets to get details of the retail price.