He gave this assurance after a Shiv Sena delegation led by party general secretary Subhash Desai met him to press for import of 15,000 tonnes of onions.

Sources said the decision on import could have been taken today itself, but as BJP ministers were busy attending a workshop at Goregaon, the cabinet meet was cancelled.

The state government should have acted immediately after the Centre granted permission to include onions under the Open General Licence (OGL) category two weeks ago, Desai said. ``The delay is proving costly to consumers, as there's no stock of old onions in the market. Mumbai alone requires 1,000 tonnes of onion daily,'' he added.

Desai surmised that the government didn't act because it felt private traders would import onionsthemselves under OGL, but they didn't. He said 15,000 tonnes would help tide over the crisis for a month and give time for a fresh crop of onions to grow.

Two weeks ago, the state had sought the Centre's permission to waive import duty, so that it could import 10,000 tonnes of onion from Iran. But the state government has said it hasn't received any reply yet. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Ramdas Kadam informed the state plans to import onions at the rate of Rs 13 per kilo and sell them at a subsidised rate of Rs 10 per kilo. He said the state had banned exports of potatoes on Monday because a shortage was anticipated.