Singur farmers to present paddy to Mamata in bid to silence Opposition allegations

Kolkata: Farmers associated with West Bengal Kishan Khet Mazdoor Trinamool Congress Committee have proposed to present paddy produced in Singur to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a bid to silence the Opposition's allegations that the area has failed to yield any crop.

A meeting of the committee was held at Trinamool Bhavan on Sunday afternoon. Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee was present in the meeting.

Chatterjee said that under the BJP-led government at the Centre, the condition of the farmers throughout the country has turned from bad to worse. The Centre has proposed to hike the income of farmers three times by 2022, while the state government has already done it.

Becharam Manna, president of the committee, said the farmers have proposed to present paddy that is being produced in Singur. He alleged that the Opposition is trying to mislead people by making false allegations that Singur and its adjoining areas have failed to yield paddy.

It may be mentioned that after returning the land to the farmers as directed by the Supreme Court, the state government took several steps to produce paddy in Singur.

Agriculture experts had visited the spot and the soil was tasted. Mamata Banerjee herself had sown seeds and later distributed them among the farmers.

Singur was the vegetable bowl of Bengal before the land was forcibly taken from the farmers to start an automobile factory by the Tatas. Factory sheds and other concrete structures came up on nearly 1,000 acres of land where the proposed factory was supposed to come up. The fertile land was supposedly converted into a barren one in the process.

Meanwhile, the farmers have decided to call a convention where the achievements and problems faced by the farmers will be discussed at length.

The committee will request Mamata Banerjee to attend the convention, whose date and venue are yet to be finalised, said Partha Chatterjee. Farmers and agriculture labourers will also attend the Brigade meeting on January 19 in great numbers.

After coming to power in three states in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Congress government is waiving the loans to the farmers but the condition of farmers has improved in Bengal over the past seven years.

Arup Roy, state Cooperation minister, said loans worth

Rs 5,200 crore have been disbursed among the farmers at 7 percent interest in the current financial year. 3 percent loan was waived if the money was not returned on time. However, the tendency to repay the loan has been among 95% and above.

The state government has cracked down on the middlemen and from January 1, 2019, the farmers will receive cheques for selling paddy and the slogan for the same is "give your paddy and take your own cheque."