Swaraj’s onion hunt costs Delhi Govt Rs 2.25 cr

The message is clear: In the next 15 days, watch your onion carefully. Your regular 2-kg subsidised quota in Delhi or elsewhere of the now precious vegetable may be a mix of Iranian, Polish, Khazakh etc., etc. variety.

Also never mind that it will cost the Delhi Government Rs 20 extra for every kg that you buy for Rs 10 at the subsidy counters. Because it’s election time once again. And it could be another five years before you ever get a chance to savour phoren onion.

Until yesterday, Swaraj had been eyeing central Asian countries, “where onion is sold for only Rs 4”. Today she added Poland toher shopping list. “I have spoken to the Polish Ambassador in India. We should be getting onion from there very soon.”

The Great Onion Hunt has so far cost the Delhi Government Rs 2.25 crore. The 750-tonne consignment being imported by air from Iran carries an on-arrival price tag of Rs 30 per kg. When subsidied for Rs 10 in Delhi, only Rs 75 lakh will return to the treasury.

“Economics don’t matter when we are thinking of public welfare,” says Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Poornima Sethi, 31 days before Delhi chooses a new Assembly. “And anyway, we are not in a position to disclose where the funds came from.”

The funds, says a senior official, have been siphoned off from various departments and deposited in the coffers of the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation (DSCSC) — a Delhi Government undertaking.

This corporation is the frontal agency which will buy the imported onion from — and anywhere else in the future — through a “private party”. The latter will charge the GovernmentRs 30 for every kg it buys.

In Iran, by Swaraj’s admission, onion is currently available for Rs 10-12 per kg. “Even if the price increases, it doesn’t matter because we will be buying the onion only after it reaches Delhi airport,” she says. “The Rs 30-per kg package is inclusive of the air freight charges and other taxes which will be borne by them (the private party).”

Sources say the mysterious “private party”, represented by a Delhi-based exporter-cum-importer, has been chosen because of the latter’s close connections with the BJP.

Rajlakshmi Sood, chairperson of DSCSC, however, says: “We invited bids, and they (the chosen private party) quoted the lowest rates. There were others demanding Rs 40 per kg.”

And Swaraj reasons that the Government was anyway buying onion for Rs 30 per kg from Azadpur wholesale market.

There are slight hiccups though, because “we are doing this for the first time” says Poornima Sethi. Only 70 tonne of the 750-tonne Iranian consignment has been unloaded inthe past two days. The Government attributes this to aircraft delays, but is confident that the total consignment will arrive this week.

And what about the onion from Poland, Turkmenistan and…? Sethi says you will get them sure, when the ships start arriving and when more “private parties” are awarded contracts.

“After all, onion has now been brought under the Open General License Category,” she says. “Anyone can import it from anywhere.”