Second sale of wheat to be held through e-auction on Feb 15

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) With a view to address the issues surrounding rising prices of wheat and Atta, the second sale of wheat through e-auction will be held throughout the country on February 15.Food Corporation of India (FCI) has issued direction to all the winning bidders of first e-auction held on February 1 and 2 to remit the cost and lift the stock immediately from concerned depots across the country and make the same available in respective markets in order to further contain the prices. The prices are set to fall further after the wheat sold in the e-auction is lifted and Atta is made available in the market.In order to address the rising price of wheat and Atta in the country, as per the recommendation made by the Group of Ministers, the FCI offered 22 LMT out of 25 LMT wheat stock earmarked for e-auction of wheat from the Central pool stock to the market through various routes under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) in the e-auction on February 1 and 2.In the e-auction, more than 1150 bidders came forward for participation in the first week and a quantity of 9.2 LMT was sold across the country.Earlier, on Thursday, Food department had reviewed the progress of sale of Atta (wheat flour) at Rs 29.50 per kg through various outlets to consumers, a move aimed at checking the high rate of the essential commodity. During the meeting, which was attended by officials of Food Corporation of India (FCI), Kendriya Bhandar, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India Limited (NCCF), it was decided that these institutions will lift wheat up to 3 lakh metric tonnes from FCI depots and after converting it into Atta they will sell Atta to consumers at Rs 29.50 per kg through various retail outlets. These institutions agreed to supply Atta at the decided price, with the MRP mentioned boldly on the sacks.
--IANS kvm/uk/

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