Bengal-bound fish, onion cargoes blocked in Odisha

JALESWAR/DANTON: Protesters in Odisha stopped truckloads of fish, eggs and onions from crossing into Bengal on Saturday in reaction to Mamata Banerjee's decision to block potato shipments from Bengal.

Congress, BJP and CPM jointly staged the road block from 9am till 10.30am in Odisha's Jaleswar. West Midnapore's Danton is on the other side of the border.

With Bengal holding back potato shipments, prices have shot up in Odisha, which is still reeling from Cyclone Phailin.

Jaleswar IC Sudip Kumar Pradhan said the parties had submitted a memorandum to the administration on Friday, declaring their intent to stage a road blockade in protest against Bengal's ban on potatoes leaving its borders.

The IC contacted his superiors in the Balasore administration. The Balasore DM and SP ordered him to warn the protesters that no roadblock would be allowed. Local leaders, however, insisted on going ahead with their joint protest after a meeting on Friday night.

On Saturday, they swooped on Lakshman Nath Road and stopped trucks carrying fish, eggs and onions to Bengal. The IC got the blockade lifted after 90 minutes and called the leaders to a meeting.

Local Congress leader Kaliya Giri said they had served a notice to the administration that they would launch an indefinite blockade if Bengal did not allow potato shipments to Odisha in two days. "Odisha needs 500 truckloads of potato every day. Ever since Bengal stopped the supply, we asked the Odisha administration to work towards restoring the supply. I have been informed that governments of the two states are discussing the issue," said Giri.

Onion is selling for Rs 70 a kilo in Bengal's markets and has defied all attempts by the administration . Fish, too, is getting expensive by the day.

In a Federal structure that we have in our country, it is suicidal in being parochial.

However, our Mamata didi is not a normal person.

She takes decisions first and thinks later.

It surprises me why it has taken so long for Odisha to retaliate?

All states in India, depend on each other for everything and when one state takes action against the people of products of another state, the centre should immediately come in the picture.

However, with a silent or rather no prime minister in Delhi for the last 10 years, matters have deteriorated.

Thus we have the Shiv Sena and MNS threatening people from UP and Bihar and not allowing them to sit for railway exams in Maharashtra while the centre looks on nonchalantly just so that the fissures between the two cousins Raj and Uddhav become wider and the Congress party could benefit.

The centre should have immediately arrested, Raj Thakre, and placed him in a jail in UP or Bihar, when he issued those threats.