Following MiD DAY's report, Ministry of Agriculture steps in to get clearances for imported onions rotting at JNPT

MiD DAY's expose on tonnes of Pakistani onions rotting at the JNPT for days while the city faces a shortage (Pak onions rot at JNPT, MiD DAY, December 31) has spurred the Ministry of Agriculture into action.

And, with the ministry prioritising the issue, the onions are expected to get all the required clearances by today.


Small onions in retail market at Thane are selling for Rs 25 per kilo

When MiD DAY had spoken to the MoS of Agriculture (Union of India) KV Thomas last week, he had promised to investigate the matter and make amends.
u00a0
Yesterday, he said, "The newspaper cutting (of the article) was taken to my assistant manager and I have asked him to look into the matter."

Pradeep Vaswani, an onion trader, said, "I've heard that the officials in charge of clearances received a call from the undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Senior officials from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which is in charge of issuing permits and no objection certificates for imported food items, came down personally to take samples and we've been promised results within 24 hours."

KN Gupta, senior inspecting officer with FSSAI, said, "We know it is a sensitive issue and we've given it top priority.
u00a0
We received an application from the Custom House Agent about the consignment on Monday and have taken samples and sent them to the lab for testing."

Traders claim the FSSAI usually takes days to release the test results.

However, with this consignment receiving a lot of attention, matters have been speeded up. "The consignment will be cleared within 24 hours," said Gupta.

Gupta blamed poor storage conditions for the last batch of onions being of poor quality, "They are not refrigerated while being transported and are exposed to high temperatures. The current batch, however, looks fine."

Vaswani said that if they receive the necessary clearances today, this batch would have taken only six days to get cleared compared to the eight days taken earlier.

"It is good that the current batch is getting cleared faster but they need to speed up the process further," he said.

'Not us'
Additional Commissioner of Customs Ataur Rehman said that all the onion consign-ments had already received customs clearance. "There are no consignments awaiting clearance from us. Contrary to some reports in the media, only four bills of entry have been received. The first consignment was of 79 metric tonnes and was cleared by us on December 30. This consignment, which makes up eight containers, is of 99 metric tonnes and has been cleared by us. It is awaiting clearance from the FSSAI."