Centre considers Bengal’s plea for poppy cultivation amid rising ‘posto’ prices?

Kolkata: A Bengali platter could only be complete with ‘postor bora’ and ‘alu posto’.

The Mamata Banerjee government has repeatedly urged the Centre to allow cultivation of ‘posto’ (poppy seeds) in the state, insisting that delicacies prepared with its seeds are a vital part of Bengali cuisine. The state had appealed to the Centre saying that the former will cultivate the poppy seeds in agriculture farms.

Highly placed sources said that following the relentless pressure from the Mamata Banerjee government, the Centre has already started considering the Bengal government’s appeal.

Bengal much earlier had sought the Centre’s permission to cultivate poppy seeds, a highly regulated crop and delicacy throughout the state only because the prices of posto has been increasing for the past many years. If a state like Bengal was allowed to cultivate the price would have gone down.

Will the tussle between the Bengal government and Centre over the poppy cultivation be over as the Centre, it was learnt, has begun to consider the proposal of the state? What the Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee had put forward as to why only 3-4 states will be allowed to cultivate poppy and the other states will have to buy from them or the exporters. Banerjee in the last year strongly advocated for allowing Bengal to produce the poppy seeds during a session in the Assembly.

“Bengalis love posto’. Why should it be cultivated in only four states? Why not in West Bengal, despite it being on our menu every day? Why will we have to purchase posto’ from other states at high prices?” Banerjee had stated. During that time she had also appealed to the BJP MLAs to request Centre for giving permission.

“Why will West Bengal not get permission for its cultivation? I will ask members of the opposition to write to the Centre on it,” Banerjee had stated in the Assembly.

The state has been trying to get permission for cultivation of the highly-regulated crop for a long time. Banerjee had also put forward a logic that If the state could grow poppy, people would have got ‘posto’ at a much cheaper price — of Rs 100 per kg. She had also pointed out that all poppies were not drugs.

The Central government prohibits the growth of poppies because of the possibility that they could be abused to produce opiates like heroin and morphine. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Compounds (NDPS) Act, 1985, which attempts to limit the manufacture and trafficking of compounds that can be used in drugs, places strict restrictions on the growing of poppy seeds. Only select states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh—are allowed to produce poppy seeds under rigorous licensing and supervision. As other states have to buy from these states, loose posto has almost vanished, whereas the packaged variety retails at anything between Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200 per kilo.