‘Onions cost ₹135 a kg at Heritage Foods’

Naidu has no moral right to criticise govt. on onions: YSRCP MLA

Former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is also former owner of Heritage Foods, has no moral right to find fault with the YSR Congress government with regard to rise in onion prices in the State, said Chodavaram MLA Karanam Dharmasri (YSRCP).

Mr. Dharmasri, speaking at the Legislative Assembly Media Centre here on Monday, said that Heritage Foods was selling a kg of onions for ₹135, while the Andhra Pradesh government was providing the vegetable for just ₹25. The MLA showed the photo of a price tag to make his point.

If the TDP leader was really concerned about what the public was paying for the onion, he should have asked Heritage Foods, which belongs to his family members, to slash the prices. “Even if Heritage could not sell it for ₹135 a kg, it should have sold it for ₹50 a kg,” Mr Dharmasri said. AP was the only state that was providing onion to the public on subsidy, he pointed out.

The public was paying exorbitant prices for the vegetable in other States. People had to pay ₹160 for a kg onion in Maharashtra, ₹200 in Chennai, ₹120 in UP, ₹140 in Kerala and ₹100 in Odisha.

The government spent ₹27 crore on the purchase of onion from different markets in the country till now, Mr. Dharmasri said.

Government Whip Samineni Udaybhanu said that the Opposition was using onion prices to obstruct a discussion on the security for women.

There was nothing worse than the opposition obstruction to the Home Minister, a woman, speaking on the subject that concerned the safety and freedom of women.

‘No plan to change party’

Addanki TDP MLA Gottipatti Ravikumar in an informal chat with reporters in the loddies of the Legislative Assembly said that there was no change in his political ideology, but there were a lot of rumours about him changing party. He told reporters that he did not have the slightest plan to change parties.

The inspections being conducted by officials in his quarry were causing inconvenience, but that would not change his stand, the MLA said. Quarry business was his family business, he added.