CPI (ML) urges probe into police firing on potato farmers

Statesman News Service

MALDA, March 6: The CPI (ML) Liberation , Malda branch, today submitted an application to the Gangarampur Block development officer in south Dinajapur seeking information in detail, under section 6 and 8 of the Right to Information Act 2005, about the bond distributed among farmers for storing potatoes in the cold storage of Gangarampur Co-operative Marketing Society. After inquiring into the police firing following an agitation staged by the local potato farmers on 27 February at Kaldighi in Gangarampur, the CPI (ML) Liberation leaders claimed that the cold storage authorities had sold off bond at high prices to the big merchants depriving the poor and marginal farmers.The CPI (ML) leaders also alleged that Gangarampur Co-operative Marketing Society is suppressing facts by hiding the computer and preparing a new list of bonds distributed to the farmers.They demanded administrative inquiry against the society seizing the hard disk of the computer to unearth earlier records of bonds distributed to farmers while the society claimed that the computer was damaged by the angry farmers.On 29 February, the Malda CPI (ML) Liberation leader Mr Mrityunjay Das and state committee member of CPI (ML) peasant wing, Mr Nabakumar Biswas visited the Kaldighi village in Gangarampur and interacted with the farmers victimised after police firing during the agitation for reporting to the party mouthpiece Deshobroti.Farmers became violent when they came to know that the bonds for potato were exhausted within 10 days and they were not in position to keep their produce in the cold storage.This year farmers had a massive potato production and many farmers could not complete harvesting. On 25 February, nearly 1000 farmers came to the society to collect the bonds but returned without bonds from the long queue after waiting for a long time. Next day more farmers assembled there to get bonds from the society.According to the report, “A farmer, Mr Saifuddin Mian, resident of Shikarpur under Jahangirpur gram panchayat, had been able to collect a bond (token no 1247) on 25 February. He disclosed that last year the price of bond was Rs 17 per bag but this year he had to collect bonds from a local businessman by paying Rs 25 to 28”.The CPI (ML) leaders demanded publication of the list of farmers distributed by the society. They also demanded that farmers should get back their cycles which are under the police custody. Police seized hundreds of cycles from the spot when agitated farmers fled after police lathi charge and firing. ##