Over 1,000 potato farmers made a five-hour blockade on NH27 near Jalpaiguri town on Thursday to protest a new arrangement reached jointly by a local rural body and the district agricultural marketing department for issuing bonds or tickets to preserve the produce in cold storages.
The blockade, which started at 9 a.m., disrupted traffic on the highway that connects the districts of Alipurduar and Cooch Behar and heads for the Northeast.
According to sources, cold storages issue bonds to farmers on a first-come, first-serve basis in exchange for a charge to store the potato every year.
However, on Wednesday, representatives of the local panchayat samiti and officials from the state agricultural marketing department posted in the district met at the Jalpaiguri Sadar block development office and agreed to revise the mode of distribution of the bonds.
It was decided that panchayats would deliver half of the bonds of each cold storage. 30 percent of the remaining bonds would be held in cold storage, while 20 percent would be kept aside for distribution in case of emergency.
Farmers found out about the new arrangement when they arrived at a cold storage in Mohitnagar on Monday to collect bonds.
"We are unwilling to accept the new arrangement. If it is done, real farmers like us would not be able to obtain bonds from panchayats, and middlemen will make money out of it.
We want the bonds to be distributed the way it was done before," farmer Gurupada Roy stated.
More and more farmers reached Mohitnagar and after some time, they raised a blockade on the national highway. Soon, a police team arrived.
Farmers increased in number, and they reaffirmed that no bond should be distributed through panchayats.
Police officers spoke with the protesters, but the farmers refused to leave and asked that the government release a written order rescinding the new decision.
"We believe that if bonds are distributed through panchayats, they would be illegally sold at higher rates," stated another farmer, Paresh Singha.
District magistrate Moumita Godara Basu said that she was unaware of the new arrangement. “I had no inkling of the decision as the administration was not informed. Let us make it clear that the bonds would be distributed directly from cold storages,” she said.
Following the assurance, the farmers lifted the barricade around 2.30 p.m.
"We were merely following the decision and thus, the farmers were directed to collect bonds from the panchayat concerned," said Kishor Marodia, convener of the Jalpaiguri district branch of West Bengal Cold Storage Association. Earlier, the bonds were distributed directly to farmers and there had been no problems. We are waiting for further instructions from the administration,” said Marodia.
