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Jalpaiguri : Farmers on the boil over cold storage

-The Telegraph

They also torched the office of a weigh bridge and damaged it, pelted stones and blocked roads, demanding that all should get adequate bonds to store their produce

Jalpaiguri: Violence sparked in three locations on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town, on Thursday as hundreds of potato farmers, who crowded in front of cold storages to collect bonds to store their produce, resorted to protests after alleging anomalies in the distribution of the bonds.

Protesters ransacked a cold storage, torched the office of a weigh bridge and damaged it, pelted stones and blocked roads, demanding that all should get adequate bonds to store their produce.

There are four cold storages on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town and 20 in all in the district. Of the four near the town, two are near 73 More, a prominent crossing, and the other two are at Rahutbagan and Bahadur. Thursday’s protests were reported from mainly the one in Bahadur, one of the cold storages near 72 More and the one in Rahutbagan.

Cold storage bonds are distributed to farmers on first-come, first-serve basis, depending on demand. The charge depends on factors such as demand that year, the number of months a farmer stores his harvest, among others. Sources said the demand for bonds has risen this year because while the 20 cold storages in Jalpaiguri district can store 3.2 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes, around 11.5 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes have been harvested in the district this year.

On Thursday, as the farmers stood in queue to collect the bonds, employees of cold storages distributing them told farmers they need proofs like farmland deeds, kisan credit cards or krishak bandhu cards.

“This was to confirm that the person collecting the bond is a farmer, not a middleman. Some middlemen do take the bonds and sell them to farmers at a profit,” said a cold storage owner.

But asking for identity proofs led to confusion and anger among farmers, especially those who had farmed the crop in someone else's land.

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