Chandigarh, Dec 21 (PTI) The Haryana government on Tuesday sought to assure the assembly that an adequate stock of various fertilisers is available in the state.
The government gave the assurance in response to the opposition’s allegation that there was a shortage of various manures including di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea in the state and this was affecting the sowing of Rabi crops by farmers.
The opposition Congress MLAs said when the BJP-JJP government in the state has been denying any shortage of fertilisers, why were farmers seen recently standing in long queues to purchase fertilisers and why was this key farming input is being distributed through police stations.
Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhary, Jagbir Singh Malik, Chiranjeevi Rao, Shispal Singh, Mamman Khan, Bishan Lal, Aftab Ahmed, Geeta Bhukkal and lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala had given a call attention notice in the assembly to raise the issue.
Alleging the shortage of fertilisers in Haryana, they said across the state, farmers have been gripped by a panic due to the severe shortage of DAP, urea and other fertilisers.
These fertilisers are key nutrients for Rabi crops and their shortage is affecting the sowing of wheat and mustard, they said.
Speaking during the call attention motion, the MLAs alleged that to buy fertilisers, farmers have been reported recently to be standing and waiting endlessly in long queues outside the offices of primary agriculture cooperative societies and fertiliser dealers’ shops in several districts including Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Nuh, Mahendergarh, Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani and Hisar.
The DAP requirement for Rabi season in Haryana has been pegged at around three lakh metric tons while the supply so far has been about one-third of the demand, the MLAs further claimed.
Jagbir Singh Malik asked why was DAP distributed through police stations recently when the government claims no shortage of fertilisers.
“The government is lying. The fact that raids were also conducted indicates that black marketing of these fertilisers was being done by some,” said Malik.
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is the Leader of the Opposition, also questioned the government over the “hardships” faced by farmers over the “shortage” of fertilisers.
The issue also saw sharp exchanges between Kiran Choudhary and Agriculture Minister J P Dalal.
“In minister’s own constituency, people were seen in queues since 5 am…,” Kiran Choudhary said. “They are in denial mode over shortage of DAP, urea, which is a blatant lie,” said Choudhary.
INLD’s Abhay Chautala also targeted the government on the issue.
Shispal Singh said the government is denying shortage in the same manner “as they denied there was any shortage of oxygen or deaths due to oxygen during the second wave of COVID-19”.
In his response, Agriculture Minister Dalal said there is no shortage of fertilizers in the state.
“For the sowing of wheat and mustard, the state government has a sufficient quantity of fertilizers available,” he said.
“Till now, about 6.93 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of urea, 2.82 lakh metric tonnes of DAP, more than one lakh tonnes of SSP (Single Super Phosphate), more than 41,000 NPK is available, out of which 6.24 lakh metric tonnes of urea, 2.60 lakh metric tonnes of DAP, 79,000 metric tonnes of SSP, 38,661 metric tonnes of NPK have been provided to the farmers in the State,” Dalal said.
The agriculture minister said keeping in view the sowing of crops in every district, fertilizer has been made available.
The state government has also initiated strict action against black marketing of fertilizers, he said, adding in 22 districts, 61 complaints were received, 157 show-cause notices were issued, 88 licenses were suspended, and 20 FIRs were registered.
Besides this, 1,685 teams have conducted continuous raids to curb black marketing, he said.
Dalal said during the purchase of fertilizer at the sale point, the queues at a few places were not because of shortage or non-supply of fertilizer.
It takes some time to update the data on the PoS machine (Point of Sale machine) and that resulted in queues at some places, he said.
Dalal said the consumption of DAP in the last Rabi season was 2.58 lakh metric tonne whereas, during the current season a quantity of 2.57 lakh MT has been made available up to December 15, 2021, to the farmers which is at par with the last year consumption.
“Further, other sources of phosphatic fertilizers like SSP and NPK was also made available in much more quantity than last year,” the minister said.
He added that the sale of urea fertilizer was 5.88 lakh MT during last year whereas it is 5.74 lakh MT during the current Rabi season which indicates that this year supply to farmers is almost same.
Haryana has a urea stock of 55,828 MT and additionally about 50,000 MT of urea fertilizer is likely to arrive in the state in the next four days and the government of India has announced to supply about 1,25,000 MT urea by the end of this month, he said. PTI SUN RAX RAX RAX
