Centre to clarify stand on ECA

The court fixed January 6 for further hearing in the case. In a related development, the Delhi Government filed an affidavit saying the hoarding of commodities like onions was not possible as these had a limited life and could not be kept in cold storage.

In the affidavit, counsel for the city government Anil Grover said that the escalation of prices was due to untimely rains and a bad crop in the onion-producing states. Aggarwal said that the spiralling vegetable prices had affected people throughout the country and the Centre had the power to invoke the Essential Commodities Act immediately to discipline both retailers and wholesalers.