BJP, Cong trade charges as politics over urea heats up

Sushil Manav & Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Sirsa/Hisar, December 17

The politics over supply of urea heated up in the state on Wednesday with the Congress accusing the BJP of failing to provide fertilisers to farmers in time and the government maintaining there was no shortage of the commodity.

Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Kiran Choudhry today wrote to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar expressing concern over reports of smuggling of truckloads of DAP and urea from the state to Delhi and elsewhere. This comes a day after the CM said there would be no shortage of fertiliser.

“The state government has failed to provide farmers DAP and urea when their crops needs it the most. The situation is precarious. Farmers are being forced to purchase fertiliser in the black market, adding to their input costs,” Choudhry said in her letter.

Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, who has repeatedly denied reports of urea shortage, said the BJP government found shortage of nearly 64,000 tonnes in urea stock after it took over. “There is panic among the farmers who are buying more than what they need in order to stock up on the fertilizer. This hoarding tendency is only making the problem worse,” he said.

Dhankar said the Centre allocated 11 lakh tonne of fertilizers for the state, which is 1 lakh tonne more than the previous year. “The state will get 3,24,700 lakh tonnes of urea in December. Of this 1.37 lakh tonne has already been given to farmers,” he said. “On Tuesday, 17,461 MT urea was distributed while 17,900 MT would arrive on Wednesday and Thursday. We are distributing nearly 3.5 lakh bags a day,” he said.

The minister said panic-buying by farmers was giving unscrupulous elements an opportunity to resort to black marketing. “While 30 per cent urea stock will be sold through cooperatives agencies, the rest would be sold by private agencies. Though there is no difference in the rates, I suspect some private agencies could be overcharging farmers due to the panic situation. The government will take strict action if any complaint was received about black marketing or overpricing,” Dhankar said.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Gurnam Singh, however, said the state was presently facing a urea shortage of 1.75 lakh tonnes. “The crisis has occurred due to short supply in November and December after the BJP formed the government in the state. Besides the previous government failing to maintain the requisite stock ahead of the next season, it has exposed the ill-preparedness of the BJP government,” he said.

Meanwhile, farmers angry over non-availability of urea blocked the road outside the local grain market for the second consecutive day today. Farmer leader Billu Pradhan alleged urea was available in the black market despite acute shortage with authorised agencies.

Centre to hike fertiliser supply to state

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday promised to increase the daily supply of fertiliser to the state to ensure it received its allotted share for December in time following the sudden rise in demand. The assurance was given by Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar at a meeting with Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar here. Ananth Kumar said five railway racks of urea and DAP will be sent to the state every day, as against two a day currently. Each rack has a holding capacity of 3,000 MT. The state was allocated 3,24,700 MT fertilisers for December.  — Ravi Singh

No shortage, says govt

Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar said the BJP government found shortage of nearly 64,000 tonnes in urea stock after it took over
Dhankar, who has repeatedly denied reports of urea shortage, said nearly 3.5 lakh bags were being distributed every day
He said he would meet Union Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Anant Kumar to request him to expedite supply

‘Precarious situation’

The state government has failed to provide farmers DAP and urea when their crops needs it the most. The situation is precarious. Farmers are being forced to purchase fertiliser on the black market, adding to the input costs

Kiran Choudhry, CLP leader