Potatoes to be sold at Sufal Bangla stalls at Rs 25/kg

Kolkata: Besides taking all necessary steps to bring down the price of potatoes within the next seven days, the state government has decided to help people get the same at Rs 25 per kg from Sufal Bangla stalls.

The state government has also directed cold storage authorities to submit a list containing names of all those who have stocked more than 40 bags of potatoes.

A high-level meeting was held at Nabanna on Friday to discuss measures to bring down the price of the produce that skyrocketed to Rs 30 per kg recently.

One of the main reasons behind the hike in the price of potatoes is the abnormal increase in diesel price that led to a spike in the transportation cost.

Sunil Kumar Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary of both the state Agriculture department and Agriculture Marketing department; Pradip Majumdar, Agriculture Advisor to the Chief Minister, senior officials of the Agriculture Marketing department, representatives of cold storage associations, vendors' association and potato traders' body were present in the meeting.

According to a senior official, the concerned stakeholders have sought time for seven days to bring down the price of the staple food.

"It will be brought down in phases and an attempt will be made to bring it down from Rs 30 per kg to Rs 25 per kg."

Sufal Bangla authorities will be procuring potatoes at Rs 22 to Rs 23 per kg and it will be sold initially through its 240 movable and static stalls at Rs 25 per kg. There are as many as 280 Sufal Bangla stalls across the state.

The official added that the potato cultivation in states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh was comparatively less than the previous years.

Similarly, potato cultivation in Bengal too has dropped. It is usually 1.20 crore tonnes every year. This year, it dropped to 1 crore tonne due to heavy rainfall since October 2019 and Cyclone Bulbul.