Cold wave alerts for five districts of south Bengal
Kolkata might get a spell of cold under the influence of cold waves tipped for five districts of south Bengal for the next few days.
Potato farmers blocked the national highway-19 at Palsit crossing today demanding compensation against loss of their entire yield kept in cold storage at Memari in East Burdwan.
The chief minister was disappointed by the fact that the entire potato, stacked at a cold storage, was rotten and on 29 June, at her administrative review meeting in Durgapur. She’d instructed the East Burdwan administration to sort out the crisis farmers are facing because of this at the earliest. She’d repeatedly advocated for the farmers and had expressed surprise as to how the bulk of potato stock decayed at the cold storage where the farm products are kept for long-time preservation. The cold storage operators claimed that gas used for cooling inside the air-conditioners had suddenly exhausted due to an ‘unexpected leaking’ in the pipeline network causing the bulk breakdown of the storage.
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On 19 May, the cold storage operator in Memari declared that the cooling system of the unit had collapsed causing loss of yield, which sparked off sensation among farmers. They immediately staged a dharna demanding compensation from the storage owners.
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The district administration, in a tripartite meeting, instructed the cold storage operator to compensate the farmers at the rate of Rs 890 per bag against their loss. After passage of nearly two months, the farmers are yet to get compensation. On 6 July, the aggrieved farmers had locked the manager and some stakeholders of the cold storage and lodged a police complaint with the Memari PS. The police later rescued them. The cold storage authority claimed that the delay in compensation was caused due to negligence by the crop insurance companies.
Today, the farmers blocked the NH-19 for two hours. The police later vacated them. Sana Akhtar, ADM, East Burdwan, said, “We’ve already instructed the cold storage operator to arrange for cash compensation for the victim farmers.”
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