Calcutta, March 18: The Forward Bloc feels that the food malls announced in the budget will eat into the party’s share in the spoils system but it is holding its tongue after the Rajya Sabha poll retreat.

“It’s not the first time. Public health engineering, horticulture, self-help groups (SHGs) and fisheries departments were carved out of the Bloc-held agriculture and co-operation departments earlier,” party veteran Ashoke Ghosh said.

A new marketing corporation, announced by finance minister Asim Dasgupta in the budget yesterday, would set up retail farm produce chain across the state to take a “role complementary to the public distribution system”.

The stated objective of the chain is controlling prices but the Bloc, which runs the agriculture marketing network in the state, suspects that the government food malls would compete with the restive ally’s proposed network called Bengal Fresh.

The government-blessed food malls will be anchored by the CPM-run self-help group department, bypassing the Bloc-run agri-marketing, agriculture and co-operation departments and the State Marketing Board.

“Our board’s Bengal Fresh project would continue and compete with the new project as well as private sector retail chains,” Ghosh said. “The West Bengal Marketing Federation had procured rice through the SHGs earlier. What did they achieve?”

But he said the Bloc would decide its course of action after seeking clarification from Dasgupta. The caution comes close on the heels of the stand-off over Rajya Sabha seats in which the Bloc was forced to give up a berth.

“We won’t mind if Asimbabu facilitates shops to sell SHG’s own produce. But SHGs have no locus standi in bulk procurement and selling of foodgrain,” board chairman Naren Chatterjee said.

But board officials admitted in private that it, too, has no right to procure and sell foodgrain, which mostly falls under the Essential Commodities Supply Corporation.