‘In Solidarity with Protesting Farmers’: WB Farmers Raise Issues with Procurement in State

Palsit/Kolkata – Apart from the five major Left parties of the country, the 16 Left and secular organisations from West Bengal have thrown their weight behind the farmers to make the December 8 strike successful. 

Solidarity programmes ahead of the strike have been held all throughout the state last week. In Palsit, where tractors carrying produce run more frequently than any other vehicle, there has been a huge response to the programmes organised by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). 

“We will block every highway, state and national, on December 8th,” announced AIKS general secretary Amal Haldar in Palsit. For as long as he spoke, the National Highway remained blocked -- an act of solidarity supported by the truck drivers as well.

There will be picketing at 32 spots in South 24 Parganas before the strike, while on December 8 as well as on December 16 there will be a state rally in Kolkata, according to former CPI(M) MP Samik Lahiri. 

He said, “At the kisan mandi, they are paying Rs 1,668 per quintal, while in the villages, the middlemen are forcing the farmers to sell their produce at Rs 1,120.  They sell the same produce then for Rs 1,668 to the government in the mandis. But, there is a writ here that the producers should not go directly to the mandis to sell their produce. With the new farm laws, MSP will be gone and private players will wreak havoc in the agricultural sector.”

Eighty-seven-year-old Sk Monirudin Ali, a medium-size farmer from Burdwan, told NewsClick.

“Grains keep us alive, but the new farm laws are taking away the right to sow grain in our lands. On the one hand, in West Bengal, we are not getting a token with which a producer can sell their produce to the government-run kisan mandis. In the mandis, for every 60 kg, we have to give 5 kg as dhalta (extra),” he said. 

Also read: Farmer Protests: Next Round of Talks on Dec 9, as Govt Seeks More Time for ‘Concrete’ Proposal

He added that if the protests in the national capital do not succeed, it will be  nearly an end for the “virtually free farming sector” in the country.

Mahendranath Mondal of the Memari block told NewsClick that even as the government claims that procurement is nearly over; in reality, only 40% of farmers have been able to sell their produce so far.

“And using land certification as a tool, they keep the sharecroppers from selling their produce in kisan mandis. They are then forced to sell their produce to the middleman and rice mill owners,” he added. 

Prafulla Karmakar, an 83-year-old farmer, informed NewsClick that while last year, the seed of potato cost  Rs 1,200, this year, its priced at Rs 5,000. “As a result, farmers are not growing potatoes this year. Add to this the price of fertilisers, tractors, diesel, etc. It’s a difficult situation,” he said.

Also read: ‘Roll Back Fuel Price Hikes’: Transport Workers to Hold Bandh on December 7