Below news from Indiatimes...this is what is happening in Bengal and what will happen to India if left are allowed to win in LS elections Hooghly, West Bengal : In a novel protest, farmers of Hooghly district threw about 500 bags of potatoes weighing about 25,000 kilograms on National Highway-2, linking Delhi and Kolkata , demanding that the government intervene to arrest falling prices. According to agriculture experts, the acreage under potato cultivation is 90,000 hectares of land in Hooghly alone with a yield of 2.2 million tons.
Other districts in West Bengal , including South and North Dinajpur, Burdwan, Coochbehar and Jalpaiguri have also reaped a bounty harvest. As a result of supply glut, farmers are not getting a proper price for their yield and the situation has led to a crisis.
Farmers want the state government to fix the price of potatoes per bag at Rs 150. Currently, they get Rs 70-80, which they claim is not even fetching the production cost, leave alone the profit. Sheikh Mannan Sarkar, a farmer said, “In one sack, we incur a loss of Rs 60-70. To highlight our problems, we threw the potatoes. We hope the authorities will take action.”
