Buddhadeb to write to Pawar as onion prices soar

Concerned with steep hike in the prices of onion, the West Bengal government will write a letter to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar urging him to take immediate steps.The state's finance minister, Asim Dasgupta, said onion prices rose to Rs40 per kg this week and potato prices to Rs24 per kg.
    
Earlier, after a meeting with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattachajee Dasgupta told reporters that the state government had surpassed its rice procurement target during the year 2008-09.
    
The state government has procured 17.30lakh tonnes of rice till the end of September against its target of 16lakh tonnes,'' he said. Dasgupta said that the state government had set its rice procurement target in 2009-10 at 18lakh tonnes.

The state government has also decided to enhance godown capacity from three lakh tonnes to six lakh tonnes with the setting up of 100 more godowns in different districts,
Dasgupta said.