Naveen Patnaik asks PM to ban exports of onion immediately

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the Centre to immediately impose a temporary ban on exports of onions in order to give relief to a large number of consumers in the country.

"I would request you to kindly intervene in the matter and temporarily suspend the exports of onion from the country with immediate effect," Patnaik yesterday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, official sources said today.

Stating that the onion price have been rising steeply in the past couple of months, Patnaik pointed out that the average retail price of onion has gone up by about 160 per cent from Rs 19 a kilogramme about two months ago to Rs 50 this week.

"This is hurting the common man who is already reeling under the effects of price rise of several items of general use like fuel, food grains and others," Patnaik said in the letter.

In a bid to give relief to the consumers, he said state government has been selling onion at Rs 46 a kg in government fair price shops. A customer can buy maximum of 1 kg onion each.