Odisha faces prolonged potato crisis amid West Bengal embargo
BHUBANESWAR: There is no respite from the potato crisis in near sight as repeated requests of the state government to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for lifting the embargo on transportation of the tuber have yielded no positive result.
With procurement from Uttar Pradesh also trickling down, the fast depleting stocks of the spud in Odisha have kept vegetable markets on fire. The retail market price of potato is hovering between Rs 50 and Rs 60 per kg.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra, however, told reporters here on Thursday that talks are on with the West Bengal government and situation will become normal within a day or two.
He said the state government will seek market intervention by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) to procure the tuber from Uttar Pradesh. But he did not clarify whether the department has initiated the move to get government approval.
After a flurry of questions on the crisis, the minister tried to deflect the attention by bringing a conspiracy angle to the issue. Without taking the name of Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik, Patra said, “There must be something between brother and sister (Naveen and Mamata).”
Equally confusing are the statements of the potato traders’ association which is not sure about the happenings at the government level.
“If the state government is really interested to go for market intervention, it has to act fast. Time is running out. One thing has become clear that the West Bengal government is not responding to the requests of Odisha. The onus is on the state government to find some alternative in which the traders have to play a bigger role,” said a leader of city-based potato merchants’ association.
Not only Odisha but all BJP-ruled states in the northeast such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are facing similar problem as West Bengal has put an embargo on potato supply.
On the day though, five trucks carrying 100 tonne of potato reached the city from West Bengal after a gap of four days. As the carriages are coming through circuitous routes to avoid Bengal police, extra transportation charges are being levied. The wholesale price of the tuber in Bhubaneswar mandi is Rs 3,400-Rs 3,500 per quintal.