Kolkata:
West Bengal and Odisha are on the verge of going to war over potatoes. A foretaste came over the weekend when activists in Odisha blocked trucks from Andhra Pradesh headed for West Bengal with fish and eggs. They were protesting against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's ban on exporting, as it were, potatoes from Bengal to Odisha where prices have soared to Rs 45 a kilo.
The West Bengal chief minister had said last week: "Till the situation is stable in my state, I will not send my state's potatoes outside. If there is anything left over after my state's needs are met, then I will certainly send the potatoes outside."
Ms Banerjee spoke and her administration cracked down and stopped dozens of potato laden trucks from leaving Bengal. But the reaction? Over the weekend, some 150 trucks going to Bengal with fish, eggs and vegetables were blocked for hours by angry activists of the Jaleshwar Vikas Manch in Odisha.
"We have a federal structure. So how can this go on? If Bengal says it won't send potatoes, then we will say we will stop supplies of vegetables and fish. Then what's going to happen?" said an Odisha protestor.
West Bengal is the largest supplier of potatoes to Odisha, sending some 350 to 400 truckloads daily. Since the crisis, the chief secretaries of the two states have started talks and the trucks to Bengal have been let through. But potato trucks are still not crossing the border and Bengal and Odisha could well be heading for potato wars.