Calcutta, July 12: They did not neglect their studies as children. Nor have their jobs been hit by recession. Still, government babus sold potatoes on Calcutta’s streets on Saturday.
The babus settled at market corners or stood in the sun on pavements, worked the daripalla (scales), counted out the change and even quarrelled with buyers.
Starting Saturday, the state government began selling potatoes at Rs 13 a kg and will do so till the rocketing prices fall to a “reasonable level” from the current Rs 18-19 for the Chandramukhi variety and Rs 16-17 for Jyoti.
So, over 100 officials and staff of the co-operation department and the essential commodities supply corporation (WBECSC) trooped to a dozen Calcutta markets and one in Salt Lake with sackfuls of potatoes at 8am, complete with “police protection”. Often, tempers flared as customers treated head clerks as they would the subziwallah.
As unused fingers fumbled with the scales and potatoes, the long lines of buyers got impatient. “Get snappy,” a customer growled at Maniktala market. The listener’s eyes flashed. “Don’t speak to us like that. We are government employees, not vegetable vendors.”
“Ugh, can you imagine me selling potatoes like a vendor?” asked a plaintive Mrinal Kanti Roy, a WBECSC clerk, outside Garia market.
There were enough familiar signs to make the babus feel at home, though. Work was slow and, unlike normal markets, customers stood in queues. “Stand in line,” the officials barked with practised ease. There was no red tape, but the amount a customer could buy was fixed in stone: just 2kg. After all, the state had raided cold-storages for the potatoes in a time of shortage.
And no picking and choosing. “You have to accept whatever they dole out; no chance to pick the good ones,” said Lakshman Shaw as he left the queue at Jadubabu’s Bazar to buy from the market at Rs 16. “I waited in line for 30 minutes. That’s what it usually takes me to buy all my vegetables,” said Shakti Banerjee at Lake Market.
Some, like Jhuma Sen, waited in the rain: at most of the sites there wasn’t room enough for the babus inside the markets.
Some buyers were sympathetic. “I feel sorry for them. God, in some situations one has to sell potatoes too!” postal employee Samir Roy exclaimed. By noon, it was over. Finance minister Asim Dasgupta said around 6,000 people had bought the Rs 13 potatoes.
