As late as in early week of March Dipak Santra, a farmer from Udaynarayanpur bordering Howrah and Hooghly, wrote a distress letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking redress from the ongoing potato crisis (bumper crop but no buyer) that had led to more than 20 deaths in a couple of months.
But instead of taking any "necessary action", State Agriculture Minister Becharam Manna played the ostrich burying his head in the sand in the face of rising storm. Blissfully ignorant of the crisis he immediately said what he was expected to. "This is all media-managed" he maintained. "Farmers’ death is inflated by media channels to gain TRP."
His party colleague and powerful MlA Nirmal Maji known more for his close proximity to the Chief Minister went steps ahead to deny farmer suicides. "Suicide! It is all bunkum. Must the Government answer for all those deaths resulting from illegal relationship with neighbours' wives and resultant depressions!" he wondered.
While the Government remained in the denial mode, failed farmers continued to court death to avoid moneylenders. Districts like Hooghly, Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, West Midnapore and even Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar in North Bengal were worst suffers.
Tapan Das of Arambagh in Hoohgly district killed himself failing to bear moneylenders' threats. "He borrowed Rs40,000 but the crop was worth only Rs8,000. With the Mahajan (moneylender) behind him what could he have doneIJ" wailed his wife laxmi adding there was no politician, no Government that came to his rescue.
Unable to bear the ignominy heaped by the Mahajans, Swapan Kundu of Khankul also in Hooghly district gulp down a bottle of insecticide that he had procured to keep the pests away. "My mother needs insulin twice a day and with the huge loan of Rs1.20 lakh on my head" his son had to migrate to Delhi in search of a job.
Ratan Ghosh from Burdwan, Ajit Patra from Hooghly, Bijoy Dhara from Bankura, suicide list is unending. "I saw my uncle hanging from a tree. When we told this to the local Trinamool panchayat pradhan he quickly gave us money to get the formalities done and arrange for the funeral," said a youth from a village near Singur confiding "locals were under intense pressure not to talk to the media."
While the number of farmer deaths crossing 20 on Friday with the latest such news coming from Memari in Burdwan where a young mechanical engineer PK laha from Jadavpur University consuming pesticide, Government continued to remain in the denial mode. "This was not a potato related death. He died as he could not find a job," said Manna while his father rued "he could not find a job and turned to potato farming for the time being investing Rs40,000. There was a bumper crop but no buyer. Consequently he had to die as he could not take the pressure from the creditors."
However, State Minister Purnendu Basu says, "We have made a system where the farmers where they can get potato bond from the panchayats and deposit their crops with the cold storage. But most of them are not doing so in the hope of reaping money immediately."
But the farmers say otherwise. One from Singur said: "We have heard of such Government bonds but have not seen them as all such bonds have been monopolised by the ruling partymen who are selling these documents for a premium. Those who have already sunk thousands of rupees cannot pay additional money for bonds and so they have no option but to die."
Cultivating a bigha of potato had cost Rs17,000 this year. One bigha yielded 80 packets each selling for Rs100. Hence the farmer saw a loss by Rs9,000 in the first instance. Potato production in Bengal was more than 110 lakh tonnes this year on account of favourable climate, said a Bengal Cold Storage Association member adding the farmers could have sold the crops for a better price had the Government controlled the middlemen menace but that was not to be.
While the farmers have to sell potato for Rs4 a kg the turnip is sold for Rs10-11 a kg in the town. "We hoped the Government would buy crops for a tolerable price but that was not to be as they are protecting the interests of the middlemen and those who are selling potato bonds," said a Krishak Sabha member.
What seemed to contribute to the potato crisis was the Tughlaqan policy of the Chief Minister who had in 2013 banned potato export from Bengal to States like Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Andhra Pradesh etc. As a result they bettered their infrastructure. This year their importers who had to incur losses then are not buying our crops in retaliation, said a Forward Bloc leader. Such is the irony that farmers of Singur, the cradle for Chief Minister's pro-farmer movement recently, told a BJP delegation to "forget about potato prices" asking them when they would be able to bring the Tatas back to the Nano zone.