Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced that the state government has fixed the new minimum support price for potatoes at Rs 900 a quintal.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet at the state Secretariat Nabanna.
“We have decided to fix the new minimum support price for potatoes at Rs 900 a quintal to help the potato farmers and to ensure that they do not have to resort to distress sale of their products,” Banerjee told media persons after the meeting.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister launched a scathing attack against the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for releasing water from its dams allegedly without intimating the state government, claiming the water release had affected the potato crop in the fields.
She said that the state government has decided to purchase that affected potato from the farmer to ensure that they do not face any loss. “The state government has created a corpus of Rs 321 crore for providing crop insurance to the farmers,” she said.
The Chief Minister also said that in the cabinet meeting, it has also been decided that the inauguration of the proposed Jagannath Temple at Digha in East Midnapore district, modelled after the iconic Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri in Odisha, will be done on April 30 on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya.
“Besides state government representatives, we have also decided to include representatives from different religious and charitable trusts in the board of trustees of the said temple,” she said.
Recently, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had questioned the Chief Minister’s claims of the Digha temple being modelled after the Puri temple and said that she should first clarify why the proposed temple at Digha has been named “Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre” and not “Shree Shree Jagannath Temple”.
(IANS)
