Mumbai: A day after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis approved food and civil supplies department ’s plan to auction seized tur dal, TOI has learnt that the crucial proposal had reportedly gathered dust in food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat ’s office for over a week. “Had Bapat’s office taken immediate action over the proposal, tur rates would have reduced by now. It may take another 15 days for prices to fall from around Rs 200 at present,” said a senior bureaucrat on Saturday. He said after leading traders refused to sign an indemnity bond for retailing the seized pulses at Rs 100 a kg, on November 10, food and civil supplies secretary Deepak Kapoor submitted a comprehensive proposal to the government on an auction so that at least tur would be available at a reasonable price. The same day, chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya approved the proposal, which was in turn submitted to Bapat’s office. Ten days later, on November 20, it landed at the CM’s office. Fadnavis approved it the same day, following which the food and civil supplies department instructed the controller of rationing as well as district collectors to initiate steps for the auction. “Fadnavis must step in and initiate a probe into the delay,” the bureaucrat said. The erstwhile UPA government, he said, had imposed stringent restrictions on stocking limit. Besides, it was the Centre’s annual practice to seek the state’s opinion on whether the ceiling on stocking should be lifted. Earlier this year, the then agriculture and marketing secretary Sudhir Goyal, on February 14, wrote on the file that considering the recession, restrictions should be lifted. However, in view of spiralling prices, restrictions lifted on April 24 were reimposed on October 19. Meanwhile, Bapat, who is at the receiving end for inept handling of the pulses crisis, wrote a strongly worded letter to Deepak Kapoor, saying he was not briefed about the correspondence between the Centre and the state, and that stringent conditions were imposed in the indemnity bond and steps were not taken to process un-milled pulses. The bureaucrat, though, claimed his office had been kept in the loop about the correspondence and marketing minister Chandrakant Patil, too, had seen the files. “Stringent conditions in the indemnity bond were essential, otherwise cabinet members would have blamed the department for helping traders,” he said.