Amid measures by the central government to curb rising prices of onions and black marketing, the onion traders of Nashik, Maharashtra staged a protest on Monday.
The protest was largely against the decision passed by the government to restrict onion traders form keeping more than 25 tonnes of onions in godowns.
The traders did not make any purchase on Monday as a mark of protest.
Amun, an onion trader in Nashik keeps 3000 tonnes of onions in his warehouse but did not make a purchase and said, ''A single truck can carry 30 tonnes of onions and even if we are purchasing one truck onion it would violate government's rule that's why we have decided not to buy onions.''
Meanwhile, wholesale prices of onion dropped by Rs 10 per kg as government imposed stock limits on traders to check hoarding and price rise helped increase the arrival of the perishable commodity. The drop in prices was mainly seen in key consuming cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Onion producing regions also observed a drop in prices. Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, Asia's largest wholesale onion market saw the price drop by Rs 5 per kg to settle at Rs 51 per kg in a single day after the government's order on stock limits.
In order to check rising prices, the Centre on October 23, had invoked the Essential Commodities Amendment Act and imposed stock limits of 2 tonnes for retailers and 25 tonnes for wholesalers till December 31. Onion prices have skyrocketed to Rs 100/kg in some retail markets of the country.
According to a government estimate, onion production is likely to drop by about 6 lakh tonnes to settle at 37 lakh tonnes this Kharif season.