Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday strongly advocated for permitting Bengal to start cultivation of poppy seeds.
Banerjee, on Thursday, speaking in the state Assembly said that four states produce poppy seeds while Bengal has to procure them from outside. She raised the question as to why Bengal will have to depend on other states. The Bengal government has already written to the Centre in this regard.
“Poppy seed is an important food item for the people in Bengal. Every household prepares some kind of food item with poppy seeds almost daily. We have to buy them from other states. Four states produce poppy seeds. If other states get permission for poppy seed cultivation, why will they (Centre) not permit us? Drugs are not prepared from all poppy seeds,” Banerjee said.
She added: “We have already written to the Centre for permission. I would also urge the opposition MLAs to take up the issue with Delhi. We have told them that we will produce poppy seeds on our agricultural farms. We have plenty of agricultural farms in the state. If we can produce the poppy seeds, people will get it at Rs 100 but now they have to buy at Rs 1,000.”
The Chief Minister also said that the food processing industries and horticulture department is now producing dragon fruits. “Two years ago when I went to Malda I saw dragon fruits. I came to know that this fruit is rich in vitamins. I asked the horticulture department to produce dragon fruits. In the case of Hilsa fish, we had to import from Bangladesh. After coming to power we have set up a Hilsa research centre in Diamond Harbour. A lot of Hilsa fish is now produced here.
Meanwhile, during the discussion on the state Budget of the Food and Supply department, minister Rathin Ghosh said that more than 97 per cent Aadhaar validation has been done. More than 92 per cent of authentication has been done from the ‘Duare Ration’ campaign. “More than 61 mobile CPCs have been deployed which are going to the remote areas to procure rice from the farmers. An ID scanning device has been installed in 5 ration shops in every district on a pilot basis while all the 20,400 ration shops will soon get the service,” Ghosh said.
The Chief Minister said that Rs 1.86 crore fake ration cards issued during the erstwhile CPI(M) regime have already been cancelled. A section of ration card holders did not withdraw ration. The Chief Minister also stated that about 61 lakh metric tons of potatoes have been procured from the farmers this year.