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In a meeting today, Union Food Secretary directed the states and UTs to invoke the Essential Commodity Act to control the surging prices of pulses. Under the Essential Commodity Act, the government can ask the traders, stakeholders, millers and importers to reveal the stock they have. Along with this, the imports regulations of three lentils-tur, moong and urad have been eased to freely import and fulfil the demand.
According to the data from Agmarknet, there was a rise of Rs. 1000 per quintal in tur which was Rs. 6000 per quintal. The Central government can ask the state to regulate the prices under Essential Commodities Act and prevent the hoardings to lower done the price. The import relaxation has been done after a 3-year gap and will continue till October 31. After the amendment in EC Act in 2020 government can still control the price of certain items if a certain threshold of inflation is crossed in a specific time.