TMC MPs demand slashing of fertiliser prices

, Aug 27:

MPs on Monday staged a demonstration in front of the Parliament House demanding slashing of fertiliser prices and asked the Centre to enhance their supply in West Bengal. Led by its Ministers including Sudip Bandopadhyay, Mukul Roy and Saugata Roy, party MPs from both Houses gathered at the main gate of Parliament and raised slogans to press their demands. Later, Bandopadhyay and another TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the party wanted the government to lower the prices of fertilisers.

They said the prices of fertilisers were high as major chunks were being imported. The Centre should provide subsidy to bring down the fertiliser prices, they said. The party MPs said there was a shortage of fertilisers in West Bengal which was adversely affecting the farmers. Dastidar said the West Bengal government has been demanding that fertilisers should be supplied to the state from Odisha instead of Andhra Pradesh. The supplies were delayed and did not reach the farmers on time, she said.

The protest by Trinamool Congress members came a week after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Finance Minister P Chidambaram here and discussed this issue. Banerjee had then said that there were many poor states like West Bengal where farmers could not afford to buy expensive fertilisers.

PTI