Instead of working united for the welfare of West Bengal farmers, both Congress and state government are busy blaming each other over farmers’ suicides in the state. West Bengal Congress alleges that the Centre’s schemes for farmers are not being implemented properly by the state, while Mamata government has been blaming the Central government for increasing the prices of agricultural inputs. State Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya asserted that the West Bengal government should order detailed investigation the number of suicidal deaths of farmers and the reasons that drove them to it. He alleged there was a dearth of rice mills for the farmers to sell their produce and appealed to the government to ensure farmers open bank accounts so that they receive payments through cheques.
On the other hand, holding both state and Centre responsible, Left peasant organisations allege that farmers in the state are taking the drastic step due to various reasons, including the absence of a minimum support price for their produce, the spiralling prices of fertilisers and the non-availability of loans. As per a report by National Crime Records Bureau, 46 farmers commit suicide every day in India and as many as 16,632 farmers, including 2,369 women, killed themselves last year. With such high figure of farmers’ suicide in our country, there is an urgent need to put a full stop to the dirty blame game going on between state and Central governments.