A bagful of onions for Mrs Manmohan Singh

CHANDIGARH : Anguished over the skyrocketing price of onions, the residents of Mohali and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders on today sent a "bagful of onions" packed in a sweet box to the Prime Minister's wife Gursharan Kaur as a mark of their protest.
The soaring prices of essential commodities has made it difficult for the common man to run his kitchen, the residents said adding that they sent the onions to Gursharan Kaur so that she could apprise the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about common people's sufferings.
Senior SAD leader and district planning committee chairman N K Sharma addressing the residents demanded that the PM should sack union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar for his failure to control prices of essential commodities.
He said that the PM could not shrug off the responsibility by merely writing a letter to his minister on the issue. Wholesale rates of onions in Delhi and the main producing region of Nashik on today fell by up to 42 per cent, but retail prices of the commodity continued to rule at Rs 70-80 per kg in the national capital.
In the wholesale market of Lasalgaon, in Nashik district of Maharashtra, onion prices fell to Rs 3,702 per quintal from Rs 5,200 per quintal on yesterday, as per National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) data.
Likewise, in Pimpalgaon, wholesale rates for onions fell by 42 per cent to Rs 3,134 per quintal from Rs 5,411 per quintal on yesterday. In Manmad, wholesale prices fell by 36 per cent from Rs 4,500 to Rs 2,900 a quintal, the data showed.
The impact of the fall in wholesale onion prices in Nashik was felt in Delhi's Azadpur wholesale market too.
Wholesale prices of onions crashed by up to 29 per cent in comparison to yesterday rates in the Azadpur market which is Asia's largest fruit and vegetable market due to higher stock availability, official and trade sources said.
Rajasthan variety onions were being sold at Rs 3,550 per quintal in the Azadpur market today, compared to Rs 5,000 per quintal on yesterday.
Similarly, Nashik variety onions were sold at a price of Rs 4,250 per quintal as compared to Rs 5,250 a quintal yesterday, a 19 per cent fall.
Though wholesale prices of onion have come down, it will take some time before they have an impact on retail prices, traders said.
Meanwhile, the government has banned onion exports till further notice and abolished import duty on the commodity with a view to improve domestic supply. Private traders have started importing onion from Pakistan since Monday.