The Fair price shop owners have blamed private storage houses for price rise of essential commodities and shortage of wheat in the country.

According to All India Fair Price Shop Dealers Federation General Secretary B Basu, corporates like ITC and Reliance have procured much higher quantity of wheat than FCI from the open market by paying procurement price of Rs 7.70 per kg as against MSP of Rs 7 per kg fixed by the government.

The central pool FCI could only procure 9.2 million MT of wheat this year as against the target of 16 million MT.