Prices of tomatoes have shot up to Rs. 60 to 80 / kg in many parts of the country including Delhi due to heavy rainfall in the key growing state of Maharashtra. In order to provide some relief to the people from high tomato prices, the Government has asked the state-run Mother Dairy to cut the vegetables rate by Rs. 2 to 3 per kg from today (24 October 2019).
At present, Mother Dairy, is selling 3 varieties of tomato at different rates i.e. Rs. 30 per kg, Rs. 40 per kg and Rs. 55 per kg through its 400 retail outlets 'SAFAL'.
In addition to this, Mother Dairy, cooperative NCCF and Kendriya Bhandar were also asked to sell tur dal at Rs. 80 to 85 / kg through their retail outlets.
A high-level meeting, chaired by the Consumer Affairs Secretary, Avinash K Srivastava took these decisions after reviewing the prices of key commodities.
A senior Consumer Affairs Ministry official said that "Two-three decisions were taken in the meeting with respect to tomato as well as pulses." He added that for tomatoes, Mother Dairy was directed to cut the prices of all three varieties by Rs. 2 to 3 per kg from 24 October.
The official further told that the Government has decided to increase the supply of hybrid variety of tomatoes in the National Capital in the next few days. It must be noted that hybrids have a longer shelf life and they are good in quality.
It was also told in the meeting that transportation of the vegetable from Andhra Pradesh was not possible.
The official informed that for the pulses, cooperative Nafed has been asked to give milled-tur dal at Rs. 82 per kg to the State government of Delhi. He added besides this, tur dal will be sold at Rs. 80 to 85 per kg at ''no-profit no-loss'' basis through Safal, Kendriya Bhandar and NCCF outlets in the national capital region. All these agencies will be selling the buffer stock of pulses created by the Centre.
