The Congress party is again heading for a confrontation with the Mamata Banerjee government: this time over the farmers’ suicide issue.
Claiming that the district officials were feeding her wrong information over the farmers’ suicide, Congress state president Pradip Bhattacharya on Saturday said that if the state government did not set up an all-party probe committee, then the Congress would send a fact-finding team to unearth the entire truth behind the unfortunate incidents.
Claiming that the suicides of 24 farmers in a few months had tarnished the image of the state, Mr Bhattacharya said: “We had demanded it before and are saying it again that the chief minister should constitute an all-party probe committee to find out the entire truth about farmers’ suicide.”
“As a responsible party, the Congress will send its own fact-finding to team to the districts,” he added.
Asked if the visit of fact-finding team to the districts would stop incidents of farmers’ suicide, Mr Bhattacharya said that if the real causes behind the issue were found then they could be stopped. The Congress contention was that the district administration was trying to suppress the real reasons behind farmers’ suicide.
“In their attempt to suppress truth, some government officials are resorting to fiction. According to them, the farmers are committing suicide because of depression. But they are not acknowledging the main reason: the farmers’ inability to sell the paddy at the minimum support price,” he added.
On Thursday Ms Banerjee had emphatically declared that all reports of farmers’ suicides were incorrect. She said that not their debts and their failure to sell their crop but family feuds were the reason for the farmers’ suicide. Mr Bhattacharya pointed out that the chief ministers’ response was prompted by the reports she had received from district officials. “She is not receiving correct reports and is functioning under the system. She has to rise above the system and address this issue,” he added.
The Congress also demanded compensation for the families of the deceased farmers.
Significantly, the Left Front had made the same demand. After a Left Front meeting, chairman Biman Bose said that the Left Front fact-finding teams would visit the places where farmers committed suicide. “We have names and addresses of all 25 people who have committed suicides in the state. None of these suicides was the result of family problem,” he added.
When it was pointed out that the stands of the Congress and the Left Front over the farmers suicide were similar, the state Congress president said he was not interested in knowing their stand over the issue. “The people of Bengal are not giving any credence to what the Left says,” he claimed.
Mr Bhattacharya rejected the suggestion that the Congress’ stand would sour its relations with the Trinamul Congress. However, a few weeks ago when the Congress had organised farmers’ rallies, an angry chief minister had asked the Congress to leave the alliance.