Berhampur: Wholesalers and retailers in Ganjam district have been warned of stern action in case of any hoarding and abnormal rise in prices of pulses in the market in the wake of crop loss due to unseasonal rains in pulse producing states.
"District administration has decided to take stringent action against illegal hoarders and black-marketers," said district civil supply officer Nilakantha Mohanty.
He said the civil supply and market-intelligence officers would undertake surprise checking in different points to find out the hoarding of the pulses.
In this connection a meeting was held at Chhatrapur, district headquarter town on Friday. Wholesale dealers from Berhampur and civil supply officers attended the meeting presided by additional district magistrate (ADM) PK Nanda.
"The wholesale traders have sufficient stocks to meet the requirement in the town at present," said CSO. The wholesale traders have around 4000 quintals of pulses presently. The requirement of the commodity per day in the district was around 400 quintal.
Wholesale traders attributed the present increase in prices of pulses like arhar, moong, black gram and masoor to price hike at procurement point. The price was increased by around 50 per cent in these commodities over last one month.
"Besides unseasonal rains, other factors like devaluation of rupee, commodity exchange are cited as the reason for the price rise," said Ch.Rabindra Kumar, working president Federation of All Odisha Traders' Association.
Berhampur was identified as the second biggest mandi for pulses in the state after Cuttack. Around 100 tones of pulses, mainly arhar was imported from states like Maharastra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, sources said.
Besides catering the needs of the people of Ganjam district, Berhampur mandi was also supplying to other districts like Kandhamal, Gajapati, part of Nayagarh and Puri, sources said.