West Bengal: Potato storage conflict ends in dump of rotten potatoes

In West Bengal, 7,000 bags or 4,200 tonnes of potatoes, valued at Rs 50 lakh were left to rot on the open ground today because of a dispute between a cold storage facility and the state government.

In terms of impact on the ground, hordes of people armed with buckets descended on the field beside the Delhi-Calcutta National Highway 2 where the vegetables were dumped.

As the people — mostly women who bear the brunt of putting food on the table — scurried among the piles of nylon bags to scoop up the jyoti variety of potatoes that sell at Rs 9-10 a kg, cattle, too, ambled in for a windfall meal.

In a country with an airline that has placed the largest order for planes in “aviation history”, cows, goats and humans scurried to pick up what the government apparently refused to.

The private cold storage has accused state-run co-operatives of failing to clear the stocks by November 30 last year — the deadline set by an agreement. The co-operatives have also been accused of not clearing dues of Rs 38 lakh. The cold storage had charged Rs 4 lakh per month as rent for storing 4,200 tonnes of potato since the middle of March last year.

The stocks had piled up because of market intervention by the government to help farmers and prop up prices. The government had purchased the potato through its co-operatives — Benfed and Confed — directly from the farmers in March when a bumper produce had triggered distress sales.