Over 1,000 potato farmers raised a blockade on NH27 at Mohitnagar near Jalpaiguri town for over five hours on Thursday to protest against a new arrangement decided on jointly by a local rural body and the district agricultural marketing department for issuing bonds or tickets to keep the produce in cold storages.
The blockade, which started at 9am, disrupted traffic on the highway that connects the districts of Alipurduar and Cooch Behar and heads for the Northeast.
Sources said bonds were issued every year by cold storages to farmers on a first-come-first-serve basis against a charge to store the potato.
However, a meeting was held in Jalpaiguri Sadar block development office on Wednesday where representatives of the local panchayat samiti and officials of the state agricultural marketing department posted in the district decided to change the mode of the distribution of the bonds.
It was decided that half of the bonds of each cold storage would be delivered by panchayats. Of the remaining bonds, 30 per cent would be with the cold storages, while 20 per
cent would be kept aside for distribution in case of emergency.
Farmers learnt about the new arrangement when they reached a cold storage in Mohitnagar on Thursday to collect bonds.
“We are not ready to accept the new arrangement. If it is done, real farmers like us will not get bonds from panchayats and middlemen will make money out of it. We want the bonds to be distributed the way it was done earlier,” farmer Gurupada Roy said.
More and more farmers reached Mohitnagar and after some time, they raised a blockade on the national highway. Soon, a police team arrived.
The number of farmers swelled and they reiterated that no bond should be distributed through panchayats.
Police officers spoke to the protesters but the farmers did not budge from their stand and demanded that the administration issue an order in writing to revoke the new decision.
“We apprehend that if bonds are distributed through panchayats, those would be sold at higher prices in an illegal manner,” another farmer Paresh Singha said.
District magistrate Moumita Godara Basu said she had no idea of the new arrangement. “I had no inkling of the decision as the administration was not informed. Let us make it clear that the bonds would be distributed directly from cold storages,” she said.
Following the assurance, the farmers lifted the blockade around 2.30pm.
Kishor Marodia, the convener of the Jalpaiguri district branch of West Bengal Cold Storage Association, said: “We were just following the decision and thus, the farmers were told to collect bonds from the panchayat concerned. Earlier, the bonds were distributed directly to farmers and there had been no problems. We are waiting for further instructions from the administration,” said Marodia.