CM Thackeray to ask Centre to raise onion stock holding limit

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday met a delegation of onion growing farmers in Mumbai and said he will raise the problems faced by them before the Centre.

The Chief Ministers Office (CMO) tweeted that during his meeting with the delegation, Thackeray also said that the state government will follow up with the Centre to increase onion stock holding limit and urged traders to start auction of the commodity in Maharashtra.

I am aware of the problems onion cultivating farmers are facing and I will raise the same before the Centre. The (state) government stands firmly with the farmers and will remain so, Thackeray said, according to the CMO.

To contain onion prices, the Centre imposed stock holding limit on retail and wholesale traders till December 31 to improve the domestic availability of the commodity and provide relief to consumers.

Retailers can stock up onion up to 2 tonnes, whereas wholesale traders are allowed to keep up to 25 tonnes, it said.

To register their protest against the Centre's move, traders kept off onion auctions in all 15 Agriculture Produce Market Committees (mandis) in Nashik, including at Lasalgaon APMC, Asia's biggest onion market.