The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (Nafed) questions the AAP government where has profit margin on 25 lakh kg onion gone, hints at SCAM.
If the reply to an RTI query is to be believed, then the Aam Aadmi Party’s claim of giving an honest government in Delhi stands exposed thoroughly. An RTI filed in Nasik has revealed that the AAP government purchased onions at quite a low price and sold them off in Delhi at higher price.
According to the RTI information, the Delhi government during the ongoing onion crisis purchased it at the rate of Rs 18per kg from Nasik and sold it back in Delhi at the rate of Rs 40 per kg, thereby making huge profit from the sale. The story has been published by the Indian Samvad website. Onions were purchased by the AAP government from Nasik Stock Market.
India Samvad reports that the information gathered through RTI from Nasik-based SFAC reveals that Delhi government purchased 2637.58 tonnes of onion from Nasik wholesale market at the rate of Rs 18 per kg. Around Rs 7 per kg was added as transportation other costs. However, after a subsidy of Rs 10 on every kg of onion, the commodity was priced at Rs 40 per kg at the retail market.
The AAP government is yet to react on this information. But the revelation has exposed the AAP’s claim about pursuing an honest politics in the country in general and in Delhi in particular. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been himself active in dealing with the crisis resulting from onion shortage in the city, owes an explanation to the people who purchased onion at Rs 40 per kg, which was procured at the cheap rate from Nasik.
This has also given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ample opportunity to fire salvo on Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay has through his tweet attacked Arvind Kejriwal. He asked Kejriwal whether he would set up a probe to find out who benefitted from onion trading in his party.
The BJP is learnt to have made up its mind not to allow this issue to die down. It will be launching much more blistering attack on the AAP government in the light of the revelation by the RTI.
Upadhyay further said that the AAP’s ‘honest politics’ stand is thoroughly exposed. The party was deriving profit out of the onion crisis by selling it at higher price while Arvind Kejriwal was bluffing people by saying that a subsidy of Rs 10 is being given in order to provide onions at cheap rate, says BJP.
Earlier also, the AAP government’s policies had also been faulted by the opposition and experts who had attributed the onion crisis to them. It had been alleged that the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) had written to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government asking it to make an advance payment in case they wanted to buy onion procured by NAFED in Nashik. But to surprise of one and all, AAP government refused to buy the stock from NAFED.
On being rejected, the NAFED also wrote a letter to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung mentioning that Delhi government is making a mistake, and even requested him to instruct the Delhi government to get the stock. Despite requests, an adamant Delhi government decided not to take the stocks from NAFED. The question therefore arises as to whether the AAP government was trying to create an artificial crisis of onion in Delhi. Was the AAP leaders eyeing potential profit from crisis-ridden market? The questions have begun to be put to the Delhi government, which needs to come clean on this.
