Telugu Desam Party supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday held a protest at Amaravati, before the start of the winter assembly session in Andhra Pradesh, against high prices of onion.
Naidu also sent some gift-wrapped onions to the speaker of the assembly, to which the ruling YSR Congress said was an insult to the speaker's chair.
Naidu, his son Nara Lokesh and other TDP functionaries protested in front of the state assembly and also wore garlands made of onions.
Onion is retailing for 100-160 rupees a kg across the country. The Andhra government has been selling onions at ₹25 a kg at state-owned markets.
Naidu alleged that the YSRCP government failed to maintain sufficient stock of onions at fair-price shops in the state. To which, chief minister Y. S. Jagan said that Andhra Pradesh was the only state which was supplying onions at subsidsed rates through the state-run Rythu Bazar outlets.
“We are purchasing onions from far and wide places like Sholapur (Maharashtra) and Alwar (Rajasthan) and selling them at subsidised rates to the people. Nowhere in the country, onions are being sold at subsidised rates,” Reddy said, adding that the state government has bought over 36,500 kgs of onions so far to be supplied at subsidsed rates.
Hitting out at TDP supremo, in the assembly, the chief minister also said while onions in the state are being supplied at Rs25 by the government, the kitchen staple costs as much as ₹200 a kg in Naidu’s family-owned Heritage Foods.
Reddy also alleged that during the TDP-run government, farmers in Andhra Pradesh had to abandon onions in the fields as they were unable to get even the minimum support price.
