Consumers planning to join the long onion queue at the Rythu Bazaar today are advised to take their ration card along lest they be turned away after a long vigil. Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao has ordered officials to make it mandatory for consumers to furnish their ration cards to buy onions being supplied at subsidised rates at the Rythu Bazars.
The move is aimed at keeping black marketers at bay, according to Andhra Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation vice-chairman and managing director K. Ram Gopal. He instructed joint collectors to implement the fiat from Friday.
Until now, district administrations had been selling subsidy onions only if buyers show their Aadhaar cards. Mr. Ram Gopal said the corporation is facing procurement problems in keeping the supply of subsidy onions going. Arrivals from the Kurnool m\rket yard are improving gradually, he said. Rythu Bazaars CEO Isaar Ahmed said as many as 900 metric tonnes of onion arrived at Kurnool market since Wednesday as against 400 metric tonnes last week. “We are not sure till how many days we will get the stocks,” he said.
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Even as the State government wants to ensure proper mechanism for distribution of the vegetable, the price hovered between Rs.65 and Rs.70 in open market while it was Rs.60 in wholesale market, Satyanarayana Swamy Vegetable Vendors’ Association president Allamuru Konda said. Serpentine queues continued at Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazaar for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday.