After govt assurance, Bengal potato traders decide to withdraw ongoing strike
After assurance from the West Bengal government that it will consider their appeal to allow selling of potato to other States, traders of the tuber have decided to withdraw the ongoing strike.
Accordingly, cold storages across Bengal will start releasing potatoes from Wednesday night and normalcy is expected to return in the retail markets by Thursday, Paschim Banga Pragatishil Alu Byabsayee Samiti secretary Lalu Mukherjee told businessline.
“As Minister of State for Agriculture Marketing Becharam Manna has assured us that the government will consider lifting the inter-State trade of potatoes, we decided to withdraw the strike. We have also considered the interest of the common people in Bengal,” Mukherjee added.
Traders have gone on strike as their meeting with the Minister on allowing them to sell the spud to other States remained inconclusive on Monday. As a result, cold storages across Bengal stopped releasing potatoes from Monday night, leading to price increase in retail markets.
The Mamata Banerjee-led government recently put the restriction on inter-State supply of the tuber in a bid to maintain the stock and keep the prices under control. Potatoes were retailing at around ₹35-40 per kg in the local markets. Traders’ strike has increased the prices further due to lower supply.
West Bengal sells around 20-25 lakh tonnes of excess potatoes to other States every year. States like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam depend on the spud grown in Bengal.