Bihar: Criminal complaint against Minister Ram Vilas Paswan over onion price rise

A criminal complaint has been filed against Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan for allegedly misleading people over the soaring price of onions. Raju Naiyyar, living in the Mithanpura area, lodged the complaint through advocate Manoj Kumar Singh under section 420 (cheating), 506 (criminal intimidation), 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Bihar.

In his complaint, Raju said that Minister Ram Vilas Paswan made a statement on TV blaming black marketing for onion shortage. "Paswan misled people on the onion prices and misleading comes under cheating," the complaint read. The retail price of onion has crossed Rs 100 per kilogram in Patna. The Centre has maintained that the reason for onion shortage is floods and unseasonal rain in onion producing states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

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Government on onion price hike 

Prices of onion in many places have crossed Rs 100 per kg because of less production. Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Lok Sabha that the government had taken several steps to check rising prices of onion and had also initiated steps to improve technology for better storage of the kitchen staple. Attributing shortage to low production, the minister had said there were severe "structural problems" related to onions.

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The price of onion will come down by December end or by the first week of January, said Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister R P Swain. He said the onion is being procured from other states like Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh as the production of the vegetable bulb here is not adequate. The minister also claimed the government has opened 256 fair price shops to sell onion at affordable rates, the people from different parts of the state said the vegetable has not been available for the last two days.

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(With ANI inputs)