New Delhi, Aug 9 : Aiming to rein in rising prices of wheat and rice, the government on Wednesday announced that it will sell additional 50 lakh tonnes of wheat and 25 lakh tonnes of rice from the central pool in the open market. Briefing reporters, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra acknowledged that there has been a steep increase in prices of wheat and rice recently. "The government has decided to offload 50 lakh tonnes of wheat and 25 lakh tonnes of rice under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS)," he added. This is in addition to the OMSS sales of 15 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5 lakh tonnes of rice announced a few months ago, Chopra stated. The Food Secretary also said that about 7 lakh tonnes of wheat have been sold through e-auction under the OMSS so far, while the rice sale has been negligible. On August 4, he had said that due to rising wheat prices, the government was exploring various alternatives like cutting import duties. As on August 7, in one year, the wheat prices have gone up by 6.77 per cent in retail market and 7.37 per cent in the wholesale market. Similarly, rice prices in retail market have gone up by 10.63 per cent and 11.12 per cent in the wholesale market. Meanwhile in case of rice, Chopra informed that till now, a request from Bhutan for 80,000 tonnes of rice supply on a government-to-government basis has been received. Last year, the government had banned wheat exports to boost domestic availability and rising prices in the retail markets. /IANS