Law enforcers kick a protesting farmer in Gangarampur. A Telegraph picture

Gangarampur, Feb. 27: Police resorted to lathicharge, burst tear gas shells and fired one round in the air to disperse a mob of around 3,000 farmers who attacked a cold storage here today after being refused space to store potatoes.

The police have denied the charge that they fired at the farmers, 40 of whom were arrested. Around 30 farmers and four policemen were injured.

The Gangarampur Agricultural Marketing Society Ltd, which owns the cold storage located 40km from Balurghat town in South Dinajpur district (see map), said the facility was filled to capacity.

Around 11am, farmers from Kumarganj, Hili, Tapan, Patiram and Gangarampur gathered here to buy bonds to store potatoes at the facility. However, they were told that the 10,000-tonne storage capacity of the facility had been exceeded two days ago.

The enraged farmers entered the cold storage office, tore up documents, smashed computers and damaged furniture. The storage employees had to run for their lives.

“The owners were trying to create an artificial space crunch so that they could sell the bonds in the black market later,” alleged Robi Sarkar, a farmer who came from Kushmandi.

The bonds, valid for the entire season, are sold for Rs 5 per gunny bag, each containing 50kg of potatoes. In the black market, the price can go up to Rs 25-30.

The chairman of the storage, Bipul Adhikari, said the district had had a bumper crop of potatoes this year, resulting in the space crunch.

“Yesterday, we had told farmers that we would help them get space in a cold storage in Malda along with a subsidy from the government, but they refused,” said Adhikari.

A small police picket, posted in front of the cold storage because there had been some trouble in the past two days, proved completely inadequate in the face of the mob.

Finally, reinforcements, headed by additional police superintendent Imran Wahab, arrived from Balurghat, the district headquarters, along with the rapid action force (RAF) and forces from the adjoining police stations.

“We had to use lathis, burst teargas shells and fire one round in the air after repeated requests failed to restore peace. Stones thrown by the mob injured four of our men,” Wahab said.

District president of the Trinamul Congress Biplob Mitra alleged that the police had opened fire on unarmed farmers. “They were going to create a second Dinhata (the subdivisional town in Cooch Behar district where five Forward Bloc supporters were recently killed in police firing).”

Wahab denied the claim.