States told to help cut edible oil prices
The Hindu
‘Don’t let refiners, wholesalers stock in excess of their two-month storage capacity’
With edible oil prices remaining firm ahead of the festive season, the Centre has urged the States to take suitable action to ensure lower prices for consumers, including a review of their stockholding limits.
Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey has written to the States outlining the initiatives taken to ease prices for consumers “keeping the festive season in mind” and convened a review meeting with them on Monday. He has also advised them not to allow any stakeholder in the supply chain to hold stocks in excess of two months of storage capacity.
Retail inflation in edible oils and fats stood at 34.2% for September, even as the headline consumer price inflation cooled off to 4.2% and food price inflation fell to just 0.68%.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.