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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Tit-for-tat plan in potato row -Sandip Bal

Tit-for-tat plan in potato row -Sandip Bal

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published Published on Nov 10, 2013   modified Modified on Nov 10, 2013
-The Telegraph


Bhubaneswar: The Bengal government-designed potato shortage has prompted vegetable sellers in Odisha to plan a retaliation.

The traders' associations in Balasore have threatened to detain trucks carrying essential commodities and fish from Andhra Pradesh and other states to Bengal on the national highway passing through this district in retaliation to the Bengal government's decision.

Despite chief minister Naveen Patnaik requesting his counterpart in Bengal, the largest supplier of potato to Odisha, to consider demands of the people here and supply some tubers, the Mamata Banerjee government refused to supply potato to the state. It even kept vigil on the borders to check exports on the sly. A trader here said many of their trucks had been detained at the borders.

"We will block the national highway at Remuna round about and detain all the trucks carrying fish, a favoured dish for the people of Bengal, to their state from tomorrow. Many of our traders, who had purchased potato from the border districts of Bengal, were forcibly taken away by local police," alleged Fakir Biswal, secretary of the Perishable Goods' Association.

The traders and truckers' association have given the district administration 24-hour time to sort out the problem, or else they would detain trucks from Saturday.

Odisha's most popular vegetable disappeared from the markets with the government failing to make any arrangements for procuring the tuber crop from other states.

Baramunda resident Suchismita Kar had to return empty handed from the market, where she had gone to buy potatoes. Her husband also drew a blank.

"Without potato it is difficult to think of a dish. My husband went to the largest wholesale market at Unit-I and somehow managed to buy only half-a-kg for Rs 25 from Unit-IV," she said.

However, by noon, all the shops were empty with no potatoes available.

Everyday, over 350 to 400 truckloads of potato come to Odisha from Bengal. While there is a daily need of around 25 truckloads in Bhubaneswar, 40 trucks come to Balasore and its adjoining areas and at least 15 trucks to Cuttack. But with Bengal government's restriction in place for the past few days, a few trucks were coming, and this has been reduced to almost zero for the past two days.

Yesterday, the civil supply officials had seized two trucks of potato as there was a law and order situation at the godown in Aigania. It provided around 27,350kg of potato to 140 government-regulated shops and 12 Udyan fresh stalls to sell at Rs 22-a-kg with a bar of 2kg to one person.

In Balasore, the officials also took control of a cold storage that had around 1,500 quintals of potato and sold it at a lower rate to the people.

Before the vegetable completely vanished from the markets in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, it was being sold at Rs 50 to Rs 60 a kilo. In Balasore, it has been sold at Rs 35 to Rs 40 a kilo.

"It's the month of Kartik, when we are bound to have vegetarian food and we have been roaming from market to market for potato that has disappeared completely," said Soudamini Rath, a Badambadi resident.

However, sources in the government said they were trying to procure potato from other states, as the Bengal government did not come to its rescue. The government is also trying to procure the tubers from Kanpur, which supplies the vegetable to west Odisha. There are also talks to procure potato from Punjab, but it would take sometime for the decision to take shape and stocks to arrive.

"It's a demand-supply situation, where demand has exceeded supply. We were trying to get potato from Bengal. As the government there did not supply the tubers to us, we will look for other states to purchase it," said chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra.

Secretary of the food supplies and consumer welfare department Madhusudan Padhee said they had been trying to bring stocks from Kandhamal and Koraput. Around 3,000 tonnes of potato have been there. "But it is very less as the entire state depends on it. Even the traders there have started selling it at a higher rate, while it was selling there at Rs 12 to Rs 14 a kilogram. The Bengal government faces the same scarcity, but they are considering our request. Though the shortage will be there, we hope the situation will change a little by Monday," said Padhee.

In another development, the Opposition parties blamed the government for not taking appropriate measures on time, which created such artificial disappearance of potato from markets. Senior congress leader Niranjan Patnaik said such situation had been there for long. "The state government did not take steps properly and the situation went out of control," he said.

Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra blamed the government's insensitivity to the problems of the common man for the present crisis. "They should bring potato from outside the state to cater to the need here," said Mohapatra.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VIKASH SHARMA FROM CUTTACK AND SIBDAS KUNDU FROM BALASORE


The Telegraph, 9 November, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131109/jsp/odisha/story_17545613.jsp#.Un6ZzSeUVFk


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