Govt sets up agri-corp to check veggie prices

KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to set up the West Bengal Agriculture and Marketing Corporation to bring a semblance of price control in the state.
"The corporation will directly procure farm produce and market them, the idea being to stop middlemen from artificially jacking up vegetable prices," parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said after the state Cabinet cleared the proposal on Monday.
The corporation will operate on the lines of Benfed by opening outlets in various parts of the city so
to allow farmers easy access to it. The corporation will also send teams across the state to buy the farm produce. The corporation will also be responsible for sending the agricultural product to wholesale markets in the city and towns. It will also be the corporation's job to reach the agricultural product to wholesale markets in the city and towns.
On August 27, the day that marked the chief minister's 100th day in office, Mamata had visited two major city markets to check out vegetable prices which seemed to have then trebled with the flood-like situation in some parts of the state.
Getting first hand versions of matters has been Mamata's signature-approach to assessing vexatious issues before the government. Since assuming office on May 20, she has gone to hospitals, police guard lines and government offices, creating a flutter with her surprise visits.
Knowing that flood-like situation was peculiar to some pockets only, the chief minister had vowed to checkmate middlemen from jacking up prices by creating an artificial scarcity, placing the common man at the receiving end. She also asked the chief secretary to hold a meeting to find out the real cause behind the abnormal price rise.
"The government will inquire and investigate the entire matter. Obviously, farmers are not getting the benefits of this price rise," the chief minister had said, adding that middlemen were perhaps making supernormal profits.
The chief minister kept her word and told her Cabinet members on Monday that farmers are the state's biggest asset and the government will ensure they get the fair prices instead of middlemen making a quick buck.
But even after forming a price-monitoring committee and holding fortnightly assessment meetings, the new government has realized that not much can be done to regularize escalating prices. That's when the CM decided to form an exclusive corporation to mediate the procurement process.
At Monday's Cabinet meeting, the chief minister also asked her colleagues to ask their respective departments to submit records of land within their possession. Having drafted a "no-acquisition-for-industry" land bill, the chief minister is now desperate to know how much land is vested with the government. "The CM wants to make use of the acres and acres of land lying unused by various departments. She can offer these plots to investors and woo industries for the state," said a minister who attended Monday's meeting.
The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to set up a training centre in Jangalmahal to equip local youths with necessary skills to vie for the 10,000 jobs in the National Volunteer Force (NVF) and police announced by Mamata for people in the red zone.