Jharkhand CM cautions Bengal govt on potato supply

RANCHI: Chief minister Hemant Soren, taking strong exception to West Bengal's move to restrict supply of potatoes to Jharkhand, on Sunday cautioned the Mamata Banerjee government saying if export is not started at the earliest, the state would be forced to take action.

"While restricting supply of potatoes to Jharkhand, the Bengal government must remember that they are not self-sufficient (in filling the platter of its people) and a huge stock of vegetables available in their market goes from Jharkhand," he said, hinting that in case supply of potatoes is not maintained, Jharkhand would think of restricting supply of vegetables there.

Soren directed state chief secretary RS Sharma to hold talks with his Bengal counterpart Sanjay Mitra and ensure that supply of potatoes is not affected.

People in the state are grappling with soaring prices, especially onion and green vegetables. While rising onion prices have been linked to countrywide crisis, vegetable prices touched a new high because of Cyclone Phailin in October.

As most of the vegetable crops were destroyed, more people got dependent on potatoes.

Market experts say Phailin backlash was felt in most of the eastern states, including Jharkhand and West Bengal. "There could be justified reasons for the West Bengal government to put a moratorium on export of potatoes to other states for the time being to check further increase in prices but since poor people in Jharkhand are dependent on potatoes, we are not ready to accept the excuses," Soren said.

Jharkhand too is a potato-producing state but the crop has suffered badly because of waterlogging for over three days.

The chief minister asked agriculture officers to assess the exact losses to farmers because of Phailin and come up with a report to help compensate them.

Jharkhand boasts exporting around half of its domestic vegetable produce to other states. "Unless we have exact assessment of the losses we are unable to check the exports to compensate for losses," sources in the government said.

Meanwhile, Pradeep Bhattacharya, Congress leader from West Bengal, criticized the Mamata Banerjee government for its decision to hold back potatoes. Attending a ceremony in Ghatshila on Sunday, he said he would issue an appeal to Banerjee to reconsider her decision.