West Bengal: Buyers flee with 20kg onions without paying for them at the store

These days onions seem to be hot on the radar of thieves as more and more reports of the bulb being stolen surface from across the country. Recently, in broad daylight, buyers fleed with onions from a state-run Sufal Bangla store in Bolpur of Birbhum district in West Bengal. The incident happened on Monday amongst lots of people who had queued up to buy onions after the state government decided to sell it at a heavily subsidized price of Rs 59 a kilo. 

Read: Kolkata: Govt begins selling onions at subsidised rate of Rs 59 at ration shops

"Some customers took the onion and decamped with it without bothering to pay for the purchase. Twenty kgs of onion were taken in this way," an official told a news agency.

Read: Tamil Nadu sheds tears as onion prices shoot up to Rs 200 per kilo in Madurai

Locals, however, allege that this is all a ploy by the shopkeeper, orchestrated to hoard the onions so that they are forced to buy the subsidised onions at a higher price. As of now, no complaint has been filed about the incident. Earlier, theft of onion was reported from two areas in the state. On Saturday, 5 kg onion was stolen from a vegetable trader in Bhangar of South 24 Parganas district. Similarly in Sutahata of East Midnapore district, Akshay Das, a vegetable seller, last month found his sacks of onion missing when he opened his shop in the morning.

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Akshay claimed that onion thieves had escaped with onion worth Rs 50,000, taking along with some garlic and ginger as well. What caught his attention more was that they did not even touch all the money kept in the cash box at his store!

WB govt announces heavy subsidy at ration shops

"The West Bengal Government has decided that every family with a ration card will be entitled to 1 kg onion at Rs 59 per kg. As per market sources, the retail prices of the onions have touched around Rs 164 per kg in the city and even in local markets, the vegetable is being sold for Rs 130-140 a kg. In all, we will be selling onion from 1,500-2,000 outlets,” said Mamata Banerjee. Each ration shop will get a daily quota of 80kg onions from the government.

Read: Central Government revises stock limit of onions for retailers

(With IANS Inputs)