'Raids against hoarders have helped in easing panic among people who were buying sugar in advance to avoid the pinch of price hike,' an official release stated.

Keeping in mind the festival season, especially the 10-day Ganeshotsav which began Sunday, Chouhan has instructed senior officials of the food and civil supplies department to continue the drive against hoarders and black-marketeers. He also instructed that there should be no delay in issuing licences to traders for sugar trading, said the release.

'Licence should be issued to applicants within 15 days,' Chouhan said.

During the meeting, which was attended by Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Paras Jain, the chief minister also asked officials to ensure that traders did not face any difficulty in getting licences.

'The traders shouldn't earn more than two percent profit,' Chouhan asserted.

Chouhan also spoke over telephone to union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for the early release of 250,000 tonnes of levy sugar to the state and urged him to make sugar available to Madhya Pradesh from Maharashtra mills at a reasonable price.