The Indian government is taking measures to bring down food prices.

The move comes as the soaring cost of staple foods, including onions, has become a central issue in the state assembly elections, due in November.

It has also provoked street protests.

The finance minister Yashwant Sinha, said the government would do what it could, announcing the abolition of import duties on lentils and other pulses and the abolition of a special duty imposed earlier this year on vegetable oil constituents.

But he said that state governments also needed to take action, especially against hoarders, and to improve distribution between states with a surplus of onions and those with shortages.