All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), West Bengal Chapter  

All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), West Bengal Chapter

~ If Law is not Implemented Immediately, Farmers of the State will be Compelled to take the Path of Agitation & Struggle under Banner of AIKSCC

Kolkata, September 18, 2021: A press conference was organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), West Bengal Chapter at the Kolkata Press Club today, demanding legal assurance of guaranteed remunerative minimum support prices for all agricultural produce of all farmers of the state. The AIKSCC leadership said:

• West Bengal is an agrarian state and agriculture is the mainstay of the state’s economy. Most people are directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture.
• About 68% of the land in the state is used for agriculture and more than 60% of the people are engaged in agriculture. Agriculture accounts for 27% of the state’s GDP.
• But like the rest of the country, farmers in West Bengal are not able to earn enough despite good investment and good yields and their condition is constantly deteriorating.
• The input cost of agriculture is constantly increasing and going beyond the means of farmers.
• Farmers are not able to meet the basic needs of the family with the income they are getting from the prices they are getting for their produce, after deducting the cost of production.
• Due to this misery, farmers and agricultural workers of the state are in debt trap, moving away from agriculture and forced into beggary. This has led to various problems including social, economic and administrative problems and farmers are being forced to commit suicide.
• Under the Constitution of India, the State Government is responsible for agriculture and obliged to protect the lives and livelihoods of farmers and all people associated with agriculture and to adequately protect agriculture.
• It is also the constitutional duty of the State Government to formulate policies to ensure the implementation of the Right to Life and the Right to Livelihood and to prevent the misery of farmers by enacting and enforcing appropriate laws.
• The National Commission on Farmers (Swaminathan Commission) has recommended a policy of remunerative pricing which clearly states that the minimum price of the agricultural produce should be fixed by adding at least 50% to the comprehensive cost of production.

The AIKSCC leadership further said that: in order to alleviate the plight of farmers and fulfil the constitutional duty and implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers, all farmers of West Bengal (which includes those who are engaged in agricultural activities and produce crops or other primary agriculture produce and people working in any field of agriculture, farmers, agricultural workers, share croppers, leased-land farmers, poultry and livestock breeders, fishermen, beekeepers, cattle breeders, non-corporate planters and plantation workers, minor forest produce collectors, women farmers, collective farming groups, producer cooperatives, self-help groups, etc.) of all agricultural produce (which includes all cereals, all pulses, all oilseeds, all fiber crops, all fruits and vegetables, all horticultural crops, all spices crops, all tuber crops, all medicinal plants, all kinds of milk, all minor forest produce, floriculture, grass, fodder grass and plant production, nursery production, all plantation production, all cattle and livestock products such as meat, eggs and poultry, all fish production including marine shellfish, marine fish, freshwater aquaculture, honey, silkworm and all other primary agricultural products and all its associated elements) should be given the legal right to guaranteed remunerative minimum support price by the Government of West Bengal. A letter to this effect has been sent to the Chief Minister by AIKSCC and a draft law prepared by AIKSCC, assuring the benefits of guaranteed remunerative minimum support price (MSP) to all farmers, has been attached to the said letter. AIKSCC has demanded that the State Government should immediately pass the law in the State Assembly and implement it at the earliest. Is this is not done, farmers of the state will be compelled to launch a strong movement led by AIKSCC.

Avik Saha, National Secretary, AIKSCC, Kartick Pal, State Secretary, AIKSCC and State Working Group Members Samir Putatunda, Tushar Ghosh, Hafiz Alam Sairani, Pradip Singh Thakur, Sushanta Jha, Subhash Naskar, Sanjay Putatunda and others were present at the press conference.