Even though the West Bengal government is yet to confirm that suicides by farmers in the Ausgram block of Bardhaman district are drought-related, following the third incident on Wednesday, district authorities admitted on Thursday that the farmers were “under a stress of debt burden.” “It is not possible to be sure whether the suicides are drought-related or not, but it is clear that the economic condition of the farmers was not...
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Parliamentary panel against sugar decontrol
The parliamentary panel on food and agriculture has recommended against sugar decontrol, claiming the move will go against the interest of farmers as well as consumers. The views of this panel, expressed in a report tabled in the Parliament yesterday, are not binding. “The committee is of the opinion that if the entire control on manufacturing and distribution of sugar is removed, the PDS scheme will be adversely affected, as sugar...
More »Poor storage not behind high food prices: Economic advisor - Nivedita Mookerji
The wastage of millions of tonnes of food grain due to lack of storage facilities may have rocked parliament and prompted the Supreme Court to direct the government to distribute grains free of cost to the poor, but Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor in the finance ministry, believes lack of warehouses is only part of the problem and is in no way responsible for the rising food prices. In ‘The economics...
More »3rd farmer suicide in 2 weeks by Sukanta Mukherjee and Debajyoti Chakraborty
A 32-year-old sharecropper hanged himself in Ausgram's Purbachati village on Wednesday morning, the third suicide in the drought-ridden region in less than two weeks. The news spread like wildfire through the scorched fields when, just 5km away, Trinamool Congress leaders Partha Chatterjee and Sisir Adhikary were consoling the families of the earlier two victims, Jitu Bagdi and Yunus Seikh. Gosai Patra quietly walked out of home at dawn and hanged...
More »Shocking! Drought in the middle of India's floods
The Yamuna may be in spate near Delhi, states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu may be soaked wet and the Mithi river -- the lifeline of Mumbai -- could be flowing at the brim, but for people in the East and Northeast India the thirst for rain prolongs. They wait for the rain gods to smile upon them. Overall, this is one of the best monsoon India has...
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