Salt Scarcity : A Rumor

According to Sahara Samay

With rumor doing the rounds about scarcity of salt in the market, people became panic and started purchasing salt from grocery shops in Bihar 

Long queues were witnessed at almost all the grocery shops in Samastipur people resorted to panic buying on Thursday.Police resorted to lathicharge  as people made serpentine queues  to buy three to four kgs of salt  for future use apprehending scarcity. The sources said at some places, people had to cough up Rs 60 for a one-kg packet of iodised salt.

Four persons, including two traders were arrested for allegedly selling salt at higher prices at Aska road in this town at Odisha's Ganjam district.

According to Indian Express

Long queues were witnessed at almost all the grocery shops to buy salt in Paradip and Jagatsinghpur on Monday. With rumour doing the rounds about scarcity of salt in the market, panic buying was witnessed at many places despite the district administration clarifying that there was no reason to panic.

Sources said traders on Monday sold salt at Rs 40 per kg in Paradip, Kujang, Balikuda, Jagatsinghpur, Tirtol, Biridi, Raghunathpur and Nuagaon.

According to The Telegraph

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 11: Salt seems to be going the potato way.

Even as the state struggles to overcome an unprecedented potato shortage, salt, too, seems to be on the verge of vanishing with apparent scarcity pushing up its prices.

Though the government claimed that massive buying of salt followed rumours of its shortage, people complained that it had indeed vanished from the market. Some people, who managed to buy salt today, paid as much as Rs 70 for one kilogram.

Sources said the rumours started from Nayagarh district last night. Salt superintendent for Odisha Harekrushna Agarwal said the state needed three lakh tonnes of salt every year while it produced 30,000 tonnes a year.

According to The Times Of India

Panic buying: Salt sells at Rs 60 a kg in Odisha

PTI Nov 11, 2013, 08.16PM IST

People in various parts of Odisha started panic buying of salt on Monday following a rumour that it would disappear from the market, like potato, stretching the price even to Rs 60 a kg.

Hit hard by the ongoing potato pinch for the last several days, people made a beeline to grocery shops to buy as much salt as they could, thus leading to mad scenes in the state capital Bhubaneswar as well as districts like Jajpur, Nayagarh and Khurda.

The government, however, denied any salt crisis and said there was sufficient stock in the market.