Potato crisis man-made, fuelled by CPI(M) and Congress: Roy

Assuring potato supply in city's markets would normalise by Thursday, state agriculture marketing minister Arup Roy alleged that the crisis was man-made and orchested by CPI(M) and Congress.

"Supply would be normalised by Wednesday-Thursday," Roy told PTI when asked about the potato crisis in markets.

The Progressive Potato Traders' Organisation is on a three-day strike leading to shortage of supply of potato in wholesale and retail markets.

Roy alleged the crisis had been orchested by CPI(M) and Congress to put the Trinamool government in trouble and said, the state government was selling potato in some markets at Rs 13 per kg of the 'Jyoti' variety to minimise the crisis.

West Bengal Cold Storage Association president Ramapada Pal said despite the strike, they have arranged 5-6 trucks of potato daily for sales from government counters.

"We are in constant touch with the state government to help them," he said.

Asked about the recent spurt in price, Pal said due to sudden heavy rainfall in neighbouring states, crops have been destroyed and sowing of new crops has also been delayed.

"With such heavy and late rains, it was expected that the storage facility of potato had to be extended till December 15-20. Normal deadline to clear cold storage potato is November 30," he said, adding though there was no supply issue, the untimely rains had some impact on the supplies leading to increase in retail prices.