Odisha seems to be heading for yet another round of potato crisis as the supplies from West Bengal through the laxmananath check-gate on the border have stopped since Saturday.
Sources, however, said 35 potato-laden trucks from West Bengal managed to enter Odisha through the Jamshola check-gate on the State’s border with Jharkhand taking a circuitous route.The Potato Traders’ Federation of West Bengal has given a call for a three-day strike beginning from September 1 to protest their State Government’s decision not to allow export of potatoes to other States, including Odisha.
An office-bearer of the federation told the Odisha media over phone that the West Bengal Government’s decision not to allow sale of potatoes outside West Bengal has resulted in heavy losses to the potato traders.He said the federation has decided to go on a three-day strike from September 1 to put pressure on the WB Government to withdraw its decision.
Potato is now being sold at Rs26 to Rs28 a kg, and in some parts at Rs30 a kg, in the retail markets including that of the State capital when the price of potato at the wholesale market at Aiginia in Bhubaneswar was as low as Rs1,800 a quintal on Friday.It is clear that the much-touted understanding reached between the potato traders and the State Government to maintain a maximum difference of Rs2.50 per kg between the wholesale and retail prices has simply failed to deliver.
This has also exposed the hollowness of the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Department’s claims that it was keeping a close watch over the market to prevent black-marketing and hoarding of the essential vegetable.