[Reader-list] Evolving Agrarian Crisis in WB

[A. Mani]

http://www.pragoti.in/node/4593
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Evolving Agrarian Crisis in West Bengal: The Betrayal of ‘maa, mati, manush’

Subhanil


With the advent of neo-liberal policies, there occurred a massive
agrarian crisis in India leading to the suicide of more than 2 lakh
farmers. Many so called developed states of the country like
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh topped the list of suicides
with the crown going to Maharashtra, which recorded more than 44000
farmers’ suicides between 1997 and 2009. The state of West Bengal was
conspicuously absent from this list. Cases of farmers committing
suicide were rarely heard of in West Bengal. But that has changed in
the last seven months with the TMC coming to power in West Bengal. In
the last seven months 12 farmers have committed suicide in the state
because of debt related problems and a crash of the prices of their
crops. Many more farmers have been forced to sell their crops under
distress at abysmally low prices and some have burnt down their crops
in utter frustration. The question is what has ‘changed’ in the state?

What has changed is the attitude towards the farmers with the change
of government. For example, last year the minimum Support Price (MSP)
announced by the Central Government for a quintal of rice was Rs 1050.
The erstwhile Left Front government announced a bonus of Rs 50 per
quintal so that the farmers received Rs 1100 per quintal of rice. This
year the Central Government has announced an MSP of Rs 1080 per
quintal. But the current TMC-led government has not announced any
bonus for the farmers. As a result, the farmers are getting a price
which is lower than last year’s. The same story applies for jute
farmers too. The MSP for jute was set at Rs 1675 per quintal. While
the Chief Minister wrote to the central government to increase this by
Rs 400, she took no initiative to ensure that the Jute Corporation of
India sets up procurement centres in the state to buy jute from the
farmers. The central government did not respond to her demand and JCI
did not open up procurement centres, as a result the farmers were
forced to sell their crops under distress and in the process ended up
making huge debts from local money lenders and banks. The plight of
the potato farmers followed a similar story. With bumper harvest of
potato and the state government doing nothing to resist price cash,
the price of potato has decreased to 20 paisa per Kg because of which
the farmers are getting zero return on their investment.

Moreover in the last one year the cost of fertilizers has increased
astronomically, in some cases by more than 100%. This increase in the
price of fertilizer is a direct result of the decision of the central
government to reduce subsidy on fertilizer, where Mamata Banerjee was
a part of the cabinet and never protested this move. Therefore, the
farmers in West Bengal are faced with the prospect of a fall in the
prices of rice as well as an increase in their input costs. The net
result of this is nothing but debt and distress for the farmers.

A way of providing some relief to the farmers in such a situation of
distress is to increase the procurement of the state government from
the farmers. On the contrary, till date only 1 lakh 70 thousand tonnes
of rice has been procured by the state government, while its
self-assigned target was to procure 20 lakh tonnes.

The apathy of the government towards agriculture and rural development
is also evident from its performance in the MNREGA. In the current
financial year (2011-12) upto the month of December, 353.13 lakh
mandays of employment have been generated, while Rs 106552.97 lakh
being the total expenditure. During the same period last year
(2010-11), 910.71 lakh mandays of employment was generated with a
total expenditure of Rs 153816.63 lakh. On an average only 13 days of
employment has been provided in West Bengal this year, while the
provision is for 100 days. In other words, compared to the performance
of NREGA under the Left Front government, the TMC-led government has
performed dismally. This has prompted the Minister of Rural
Development of Government of India to write a letter to the West
Bengal government pointing out that the performance of the state has
been dismal under NREGA.

All these problems are essentially symptomatic of the politics of the
Trinamool Congress. After they assumed office, they have
systematically paralyzed the panchayati raj institutions of the state,
which were the prime democratic institutions in rural West Bengal and
took care of these problems of the people. But since most of the
panchayats and jila parishads are under the Left, the TMC decided that
they will bypass these democratic institutions and undertake rural
development by bureaucratic means through the office of the BDO. This
is however only the tip of the iceberg. The real reason lies in the
fact that the Trinamool Congress wants to do away with the functioning
of the panchayats in the state. The Chief Minister had said on record
that she wants ‘non-political’ elections to the panchayats, which is
essentially a euphemism for robbing the panchayats of its democratic
vitality. These institutions were created by the people of West Bengal
for their economic and political empowerment under the leadership of
the Left Front. Now, the TMC-led government wants to systematically
destroy these achievements of the people.

The other glorious legacy of the people from the Left Front regime is
land reforms. Ever since the election results have been announced on
13th May, there have been systematic attacks on the bargadars
(share-croppers) and marginal farmers in the state. The land of the
tillers earned through decades of struggle has been re-captured in
many places by the erstwhile landowners and their agent, the TMC.
According to a conservative estimate of the Kishan Sabha, over the
last two and half months, land of 527 farmers amounting to 1000 acres
of riot land has been snatched away. Additionally, 4700 patta-owners
have been evicted from 2700 acres of land, 3710 bargadars have been
evicted from 1587 acres of land while 14025 persons have been evicted
from legally acquired land. In fact the police of Mamata Banerjee
resorted to firing when farmers were resisting forceful eviction from
their land at Haroa in North 24 Parganas district.

What is happening in West Bengal therefore is an attempt to roll back
the gains of the peasantry in the state and push the agriculture
sector to the days of ‘agrarian impasse’ which characterized the state
before the Left Front government came to power. This is not to argue
that during the Left Front rule, farmers were facing no problems or
that the Left Front committed no error. But the point is that the
TMC-led government is not only being totally apathetic to the distress
of the farmers but are hell bent on destroying the democratic
institutions and hard won rights of the people of the state. The
orientation of the government would be obvious from the priorities
that the government has set before itself. It wants to convert Kolkata
into London, North Bengal into Switzerland. Crores of rupees are being
spent on the beautification of Kolkata, gala events are being
organized, banners have been banned in the city, protests and
processions are sought to be banned from various parts. But the
government is silent when rural West Bengal is getting converted into
the killing fields of Vidharbha. So much for the cause of ‘maa mati
manush’!

But it should be remembered that West Bengal is the land of the
tebhaga and other peasant movements with a strong left presence.
Therefore, instead of giving in to the distress the farmers have
started their resistance against the policies of the government.
Yesterday, 4th January, witnessed a historic strike of the farmers of
the state against the anti-farmer policies of the central and state
governments. The entire countryside came to a standstill with the
farmers instead of tilling their fields organized pickets, processions
and protest actions. The peasantry of West Bengal will not take these
attacks lying down. Yesterday’s strike was only a warning sign for the
government. If the policies are not changed, more such movements will
be witnessed in the future.

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A. Mani


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