Thaindian News

Kolkata, Dec 25 (IANS) The Congress’ West Bengal Pradesh unit Sunday urged the Mamata Banerjee government to order a detailed probe into reports of farmers’ suicides, and expressed concern that the crisis faced by the cultivators could deepen with the arrival of the new harvest.

“The state government should immediately order detailed investigations on how many farmers have committed suicide and the problems that drove them to take the extreme step,” state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya told mediapersons here.

Bhattacharya expressed the fear that the crisis faced by the farmers growing paddy, potato and jute could aggravate after the new harvest arrives.

He alleged there was a dearth of rice mills for the farmers to sell their produce in a number of districts and appealed to the government to ensure farmers opened bank accounts so that they received the payments for their produce through cheques.

He promised all cooperation to the state government if it convened an all party meeting on the crisis.

Disagreeing that the farmers were being forced to take their own lives following the increase in fertiliser prices by the central government, Bhattacharya said the rates have been increased across the country and not merely for West Bengal.

“I want to know from the state government whether the fertilisers are being properly distributed,” he said.