The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamul govt. has extended its consistently inept governance in heath, education & home to the agriculture sector. Its policy again leaves a trail of blood. Agrarian West Bengal was an oasis of growth & prosperity amidst farmer suicides across the country, claiming 43 lives a day in the last decade. Her govt’s policy, which has already resulted in an unprecedented suicide of 8 farmers already, is based on:
1)    Supreme ineptness in the govt.’s organizing this massive procurement across the state.
2)    Extreme anti-people character of its policies & behavior
3)    Corruption
The table below exposes the dire situation:

 Kharif Year                  Rice off take
 (lac ton)
 2007-08                               18.3
 2008-09                               17.38
 2009-10                               12.95
 2010-2011                           13.17
 2011-YTD     7 months          0.073

Bidhan Sabha data 13/12/11    

The govt. has clearly driven the farmer to its most debilitating crisis since the great famine. Apart from the fact that the govt. is not procuring almost anything in a category where private sales & inter-state sales are non-existent, its murderous policy vector is pronounced in the price set for rice. It is set at Rs.1080/Quintal which is Rs.50/- less than last year. This includes the transportation costs to the rice mills which seem to have been set to be the farthest. Only 50% of rice-mills seem to be active across the state making the farmer travel 10 kms with his lot. Nothing stops the buyer from refusing to buy & the poor farmer is forced to repeat the back-breaking process. This is when oil prices & so electricity costs have gone through the roof. Fertilizer prices have doubled with the govt. winking at the black marketeering. The rice-mill owners, egged on by the govt.’s insensitivity, is holding out from procuring even the minimum levels set by the govt. In Dakshin Dinajpur, the limit is set at 9 Quintals over 3 attempts. Agents have cropped up across the state buying the grain at a far lower price. The actual price in some cases is as low as Rs.800/Quintal whereas the agents get the full govt. price.
With the hyper-inflation the last year, the input costs make the official price a loss-making proposition at the production level itself. The poor farmer, moreover has to make a certain amount of money to be able to buy pulses, oil, vegetables, etc for his own living. That is clearly out of the question. The potato grower is also laden with the cold storage bills. This man made crisis has affected all crops, Jute, Silk, wheat, mustard, et al.
The Mamata govt. has furthered its interests by deciding to further burden the farmer with cumbersome, bureaucratic policies. The rice mill owners have been allowed to pay by cheque, PDCs at that. Most of the farmers do not have bank accounts or bank branches close by. The few who avoided the agents with bank accounts & created one were further impoverished by the PSU banks’ refusal to open ‘zero-balance’ accounts. The Kisan Credit card is worse in its multiple documentation & bureaucracy.
This systemic method at mortally affecting the farmer is accentuated by a planned scam, this with the wheat crop, as seen in Murshidabad. Thousands of farmers, to their dismay found that the seeds sold by the govt. were either extremely poor in their yield or were ‘zero-yield’. It seemed that low quality wheat from the PDS had been siphoned off & sold as seed. The fault clearly lies with the govt. who, bypassing all tender processes procured 1.5 lac units (1 unit = 15 kg) from Nermac( North-Eastern Regional Agricultural Corporation). This was done without any testing, prior to procurement. PBW-343 & PBW-502, tested later were found to be of 50% yield. Senior Trinamul functionaries are suspected to be behind this, but no enquiry has been instituted yet. The Rabi crop was important given the heavy rain & floods that Murshidabad has seen this monsoon.
The govt. continues further on its anti-people path by taking away the MNREGA 100 day work program. The last 7 months has been only 12 days of work & was severely reprimanded by the Center. The CM, Mamata Banerjee has been busy in destroying democracy at the grass roots Panchayat system & putting the administration in power to override the Zilla Parishads, mostly run by the left. The cynicism doesn’t end here. After coming to power, not only has she not continued on the existing land distribution schedule, she has reversed thousands of acres of land entitlements given by the left govt. but with incomplete procedures before the elections. Her army of goons has also been taking over land since the day she came to power. One should recall the Mograhat firing which killed 3 women, including a school going girl. The poor villagers was forced to hook electricity for their farming, since the govt. sat on their power applications for months & not providing them the power meters.
The left has been fighting this govt.-made disaster both inside & outside the parliament. The leader of the opposition, Suryakant Mishra addressed the state assembly & brought in a resolution to discuss all these issues. Rajya Sabha MP & Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechuri raised this & forced the Agricultural Minister, Sharad Pawar to speak on the measures to be taken. Sadly, the TMC-Congress govts., both at the center & the state have been unmoved by the crisis. While they have created the perfect situation where the farmer has to sell his land & join the ‘right-less’ ocean of cheap, unorganized urban labourers, they have instead decided to accentuate the nationwide crisis by taking the first step to let in the large corporation into this sector. They have allocated Rs. 5600 crs for a scheme where large corporations like Reliance, Adani, ITC, Bharati, etc will be given ‘ responsibility’ of thousands of acres where they will ‘handhold’ the farmers, ‘help’ them do better & ostensibly procure directly from them at good prices. This money, which is taken from the agri-sector subsidy is, quite like the fertilizer industry, another way of enriching the rich by subsidising big industry at the cost of the poor.  The Rs.66,600 crs loan waiver scheme too went to the large farmers who also act as loan sharks & facilitated the cornering of agricultural land by the few. The US Govt. along with the CII has earmarked Rs.400 crs for ‘agri-labs’ across the east, with significant footprint in West Bengal.
The people of West Bengal will not take this lying down. Led by the Krishak Sabha , the peasant organization of the CPI(M) with the complete support of the entire party & trade unions, the farmers across the state have rose in revolt. Their road blockades in Dec have been successful across the state, in Bardhamaan, Howrah, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, 24 Parganas, and Bankura. District administration have been forced to act in numerous places, the potato growers of Bardhamaan have been allowed an extension of 15 more days at the cold storages.
This govt. has been clear about its class character. Every policy & action has been against the working classes & it has been most ruthless with the poor & the marginalized. It has tried to ban the democratic right of trade unions, not paid salaries, pensions. It has allowed hundreds of sick people die in their hospitals across the state. It has tried muzzling the media & peaceful demonstrations. It has now focused on further marginalizing the poor farmer & allows the big farmer to amass land. It is an a warpath to reverse the 3 decades of justice & prosperity that the Land Reforms implemented by the Left Front govt. had brought about, not only in the villages but all across the state by creating a large rural market. It had kept West Bengal growing in spite of the active discrimination by the center in approving industrial projects in the license-raj era.  Bengal had, from a deficit state had moved up to be a hugely surplus state in agricultural produce, with one of the highest growth rates over decades.
The govt. is unmoved in its ruthlessness even when faced with the irony of farmers committing suicide while prices go sky-high. We all need to join the farmers in their struggle against this murderous govt., before it creates another great famine, this time, man-made.