New Delhi [India], April 17 Senior officers from the Department of Consumer Affairs visited 10 various locations across four states to interact and observe stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad during the past days.
In this regard, Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, the Department of Consumer Affairs, took an internal meeting with these officers who visited major pulses markets and interacted with various market players, according to a statement from the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution.
During the last week, apart from holding a meeting with All India Dal Mills Association at Indore by the secretary, on Saturday, the Department deputed 12 senior officers to visit various places in the States of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to take stock of ground reality.
The interactions with ground-level market players and state officials revealed that while the number of registration and stock disclosure on the e-portal is increasing, substantial number of market players have either not registered or failed to update their stock positions on regular basis, the ministry said.
Stocks under transaction, like, farmer's stocks lying in mandi for auction, stocks awaiting customs clearance at ports, etc, escaped the current monitoring mechsm. Further, it has also been observed that millers and traders/dealers have resorted to holding their stocks in warehouses in the name of farmers in a deliberate attempt to escape stock declaration, the ministry said.
Senior officers of the department visited various locations, namely, Indore, Chennai, Salem, Mumbai, Akola, Latur, Sholapur, Kalaburagi, Jabalpur and Katni and interacted with officers of the state governments and port authorities, while conducting meetings with associations of millers, importers and traders.
According to the statement, the market players were sensitised on the importance of stock declaration and have been asked to declare their stocks truthfully and regularly or else stringent action such as seizure and confiscation of undeclared stocks may be done by the state government.
The department already directed state governments and district administrations to intensify the enforcement of stock declaration by conducting stock verification and taking strict action on undisclosed stocks under relevant sections of the EC Act, 1955, and the Prevention of Black marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980.
States have also been asked to look into the data pertaining to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licences, agricultural produce market committee (APMC) registration, GST registration, warehouses and custom bonded warehouses and encourage these entities also to report their declarations of stock in order to widen the coverage of market players.
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