State to make sufficient atta available in 2 S Bengal districts

Kolkata: The state government is taking steps to ensure sufficient supply of atta in two South Bengal districts where cultivation of wheat has been stopped for the time being due to wheat blast.

It may be recalled that crops on 1,000 hectare of land were affected in Nadia and Murshidabad almost a year ago due to wheat blast that the experts had suspected to have come from the neighbouring country Bangladesh. Since then, the cultivation of wheat has been stopped for the time being so that the disease doesn't spread further.

In such a situation, the top brass of the state government has realised that there is a need to ensure sufficient supply of atta in the two districts as there is no cultivation of wheat.

In a bid to ensure the same, Asish Banerjee, the state Agriculture minister and Pradip Mazumder, advisor to the Chief Minister on agriculture, held a meeting with the state Food minister Jyotipriya Mallick on Wednesday in this connection.

Banerjee said: "We held a meeting and we are hopeful that the required amount of atta can be supplied to both the districts."

It may be mentioned that there is a requirement of around 12,000 metric tonne and 8,000 metric tonne atta for Murshidabad and Nadia district respectively. The process of distribution will be finalised by the state Food and Supplies department and the people of these two districts can buy atta at market price.

Following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, all ministers and officials have taken proactive steps in every case to ensure that people do not face any inconvenience. In this case as well, the state government has taken a proactive step in ensuring sufficient supply of atta in the two districts.

It may be mentioned that 95 percent of the land, where wheat is usually cultivated in these two districts, was affected due to wheat blast. In such a situation, the state government had taken several steps to support the affected farmers. They were given compensation for the crop that had to be burnt to check the spread of the disease at the rate of minimum support price which is Rs 1,600 per quintal.

At the same time, support was given to farmers to carry out cultivation of alternate crops like pulses, mustard etc and the state government had also decided to set up around 200 pulse processing mills in the two districts.

Meanwhile, a team comprising officials from the state Agriculture department went to Domkal in Murshidabad where it has been learnt that a handful of farmers have cultivated wheat and some parts of the cultivation have been affected by the wheat blast.

If there is any truth in these claims, immediate measures will be taken by the state government.