Written by: Sabyasachi Bandopdhyay
3 min readKolkataNov 9, 2013 05:05 AM IST
First published on: Nov 9, 2013 at 05:05 AM IST
Call it sycophancy or late realisation of the fact that “he failed in his duty”,cabinet minister Arup Roy Friday credited Chief Minister with stabilising the prices of potatoes in the state.
“I give all the credit to the chief minister for stabilising of the potato prices and for the vegetable coming back to the market. She has done what I failed to do,” Roy,a minister without portfolio,told The Indian Express over phone.
Mamata had stripped Roy off the charge of agricultural marketing department on Wednesday and had taken charge to control the “difficult situation.”
Roy,however,said: “If she removed me from the department,it was for the good of me,the state and of the general people. I harbour no ill feeling,no grudge. I bear no malice towards the chief minister.”
Making it clear that he did not want to say anything on potato,Roy said it was Mamata who had made him what he is now.
“I would not have entered politics,had Mamatadi not called me. It was all because of her that I have become a minister. She is (like) a Goddess for me. The day she does not want me as minister,I will quit,’’ Roy,who represents Howrah Madhya constituency,said.
On November 6 after a visit to Kolay Market and College Street Market of Kolkata,Mamata had called Roy at his office and said: “Arup,I am taking over your department,you see how difficult the situation has become. But you will remain in the cabinet.”
However,since no official order has been issued,officials of the department of agriculture marketing are out at sea,wondering where to send the files as Roy has refused to take any files beginning Thursday. A senior official of the department said: “We are sending all the files related to policy to the chief minister now. But we don’t know where to send the routine files,which require the minister’s signature.”
‘TMC-trader nexus behind price crisis’
Kolkata: Congress Friday blamed a section of Trinamool Congress leadership for conniving with potato traders and big hoarders to hike the price of the essential vegetable. “A section of Trinamool Congress leaders have formed a nexus with potato traders and big hoarders to increase the price of potato in the market,” state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said in a press meet here. He also slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the government’s decision to stop sending potato from the state. “It is a mis-step,which would lead to the increase of the price of other vegetables in West Bengal which are brought from other states as they would also stop sending of other vegetables if potatoes are not sent from West Bengal,” he said. PTI
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