West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to bring down the prices of essential commodities, such as onions and potatoes, ANI reported.

Banerjee told Modi that amendments to the Essential Commodities Act were encouraging hoarding and profiteering of the commodities, leading to a sharp increase in prices.

“I would seek your kind and urgent intervention as the state government being now devoid of its powers cannot be expected to remain silent spectator to the ongoing sufferings of the common people due to extraordinary price rise of essential commodities,” Banerjee said in her letter, according to the news agency.

Banerjee demanded that the Centre either intervene to resolve the price crisis or restore the power of the states to control production and supply, PTI reported. “In the view of the seriousness of the matter, I would urge the Central Government to urgently step in to control hoarding, to increase supply and to bring down the rising prices of essential commodities, as public is facing acute crisis,” she wrote.

The West Bengal chief minister added: “Otherwise, the power of the state government be restored for exercising control over the production, supply, distribution and sale of agricultural commodities.”

Also read: Crackdown on ‘hoarding’ shows Modi government is still reluctant to allow farmers to trade freely

Banerjee had alleged last week that the prices of onions and potatoes were soaring because the Centre had taken away the states’ regulatory powers, The Statesman reported. The Bengal chief minister had also said that she will seek the Centre’s intervention in the matter.

The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill is one of the three farming bills approved by the Parliament in September. The bill sought to remove onions, potatoes, cereals, oilseeds, pulses and edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities.

Apart from the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, the Parliament had also passed the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Assurance and Farm Service Ordinance 2020. The three bills were signed into laws by President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27.

Taken together, the three legislations loosen regulations on the sale, pricing and storage of agricultural produce. They allow farmers to sell outside mandis notified by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee. They enable contract farming through deals with private sector companies. They take food items like cereals and pulses off the list of essential commodities, lifting stock limits on such produce.

The government claimed the new laws would give farmers the freedom to sell in the open market. But farmers say the laws will weaken the minimum support price mechanism under which the government buys agricultural produce, leave them to the mercy of market forces and threaten food security.

Protests had erupted against the laws in many parts of the country. When two of the legislations were tabled during a chaotic session in Parliament on September 20, some Opposition MPs and farmers’ unions claimed that they would prove to be the “death warrant” for the agricultural sector. The governments of Punjab and Rajasthan have even passed bills to counter the Centre’s laws.