Novel protest against price rise: Odisha Chhatra Congress sells onion at Rs 20/kg before agri minister’s residence
By Nalini Sahu
Bhubaneswar, Oct. 31: Over one hundred members of Odisha Chhatra Congress on Tuesday gheraoed the official residence of state agriculture minister Ranendra Pratap Swain in Bhubaneswar in protest against the skyrocketing onion price across the province.
The price of onion has surged to Rs 80 per kg across the state and the upward surge in the curve has severely affected the consumers and their budget and left them in despair.
Alleging that the state government had completely failed to control the price and black marketing of onions, the activists of the students’ wing of Congress staged the demonstrations by holding onion baskets in their hands. As a mark of protest, they also sold onions at Rs 20 per kg.
“The Odisha government has completely failed to control the spurt in onion prices in the state. In 2015, it had formed the Onion Mission with an expenditure of Rs 15 crore to control the price of onion. However, it yielded no result and the prices of vegetables including onion are frequently skyrocketing like earlier,” alleged Chhatra Congress President Yasir Nawaj.
“People in Odisha depend upon onion as it is the main part of their daily food habit. However, the price of onion has reached nearly Rs 100 per kg. Under the given circumstance, how will they survive?” asked Nawaj.
“The state government is not at all concerned about the poor. Despite ruling the state for 23 years, the government has no control over the prices of essential food items. Hence, we are forced to sell onions at Rs 20 per kg. The minister should resign if he can’t bring down the price of onion,” demanded another Chhatra Congress leader.
