Bhattacharjee said he has requested Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to set up a campus of the Shimla Potato Research Institute, under the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI), in West Bengal.

The Union Government is also setting up its first integrated potato development and export centre in Chinsura in Hooghly district with an investment of Rs 6 crore.

... but co-ordination panel strikes jarring note ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU KOLKATA, JANUARY 9 THE West Bengal chief minister's plans to open up farm-to-table retail to big private players have found roadblocks in his own party. Apart from the Forward Bloc and RSP, who have all throughout opposed the move, it is now the CPI (M) backed by Coordination Committee of State Government Employees that has openly declared that it is against big business in `retail', without narrowing the term to mean only farm retail. Nearly 85 per cent of the 400,000-odd government employees in the state are members of the Coordination Committee.

Briefing the press at its office, the Coordination Committee's newlyelected secretary, Ananta Bandopadhyay, said the entry of big business in retail must be stopped immediately.

"Big multinationals or even big domestic firms like Reliance are entering the retail market," Bandopadhyay noted. "If this happens, then farmers will be ruined. At this moment, in our state, the glittering shopping malls are indicating the truth," the Coordination Committee leader said.

These malls are selling everything from clothes, shoes and jewellery to household goods and grocery, he noted. CPI (M) sources said the party's central committee has already decided that big domestic players are welcome in the retail segment, but with some restrictions.

They said the Coordination Committee's stand exposes the divide in the party over the issue. The Coordination Committee's sudden stand against retail in general has queered the pitch for the Chief Minister, the sources said.