ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Centre warns against salt hoarding

The Centre today cautioned the people against panic buying of salt and said the country has plenty of stocks, at sufficient for the next eight months.

As on November 1, the availability of edible salt was four million tonnes and the monthly consumption of the entire country was about 500,000 tonnes, T R Prasad, secretary, industrial policy and promotion, told a press conference. The salt commissioner and the chairman and managing director of the Hindustan Salts Ltd, and consumer affairs secretary N N Mukherjee were also present.

About 2.8 million tonnes of salt is available with the captive salt works for industrial requirements and a part of it can also be released for edible purposes, Prasad said.

The mischief created by some vested interests have created a panic buying, but there is enough stock to be made available anywhere in the country at the normal price, he said.

At present there is a surplus stock to be carried over to the next season, Prasad said. Moreover, the new salt crop will be available from January boosting the stock position, he said.

Gujarat Salt Federation president Santosh Kamdar in a message to the industry ministry said that the federation has a stock of 20 lakh tonnes and it was willing to supply any quantity of iodised salt at 75 paise a kg.

The Rajasthan Iodised Salt Manufacturers Association, Salt Manufacturers and Merchants Association, Tuticorin, and several associations and manufacturers from Tamil Nadu have sent messages saying that there was enough stock of salt and they were ready to supply to anyone. Some of them have stated that they have curtailed production due to lack of orders. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are the major salt manufacturing states.

Prasad said the railways had assured priority in making available wagons for transporting salt. Requisitions for five rakes to Delhi and 22 for Uttar Pradesh were pending at various stations in Gujarat and each rake has a capacity of about 2200 tonnes. He said the member (traffic), Railway Board had given instructions for immediate allotment of rakes for salt transportation.

The salt commissioner said there had been some loss in salt production due to the cyclone in Gujarat. But stocks had been built up to meet the entire demand following immediate rehabilitation and restoration measures taken by the government, he said. "There is absolutely no need for any apprehension about salt availability and there is no cause to panic," he said.

Some leading salt dealers of Delhi, who were present at the press conference, said there was enough stocks in the capital for several months and there was no need for panic buying.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, today blamed the opposition parties for yesterday's salt crisis, saying this was being done by them with an eye on the coming elections.

Party spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu said the BJP was determined to frustrate all their designs. Some arrests had been made and the Delhi government was trying to ascertain their antecedents.

Asserting that there was no shortage of salt at all anywhere in the country and the rumours about the shortage of salt was spread by some vested interests, he said the BJP had never anticipated that the opponents could stoop so low to get into disinformation campaign on an issue like salt.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report