MP govt admits 10% shortage in Urea, Cong stages walkout

Opposition members alleged state govt was silent on the strategy to meet the crisis that had impacted farmers

Main opposition Congress today staged a walkout when the Madhya Pradesh government today admitted in the assembly that "there is a demand-supply gap in urea" in the state. Congress members alleged that the state government was silent on the strategy to meet the crisis that had impacted farmers.

Replying to a "public issue of immediate importance" raised by main opposition Congress, the farmers welfare and agriculture development minister Gaurishankar Chaturbhuj Bisen said, "The demand-supply gap stands at 10% in terms of quantity of urea."

The state, he told the House in his reply, had demanded a total of 13.50 lakh metric tonnes of urea from the Centre, against which 12.50 lakh metric tonnes had been allocated for the season. It would arrive the state in phases by March 2015, the minister said.

The mnister said till yesterday, availability of urea in the state was at 8.09 lakh metric tonnes. The minister also admitted in the House that there was a short supply of urea in September and October due to movement restriction on account of hurricane.

He assured the House that supply has been restored as five racks per day were being made available by the Central government. "Thus we have 15000 tonnes of urea supply per day. Also there is no crisis or short supply of di-ammonium phosphate or mixed fertilisers," the minister informed the House in his reply.

To which the deputy leader of opposition Bala Bachchan interrupted and said the opposition wanted to know why there was a crisis when there was enough supply and how would the government tackle the crisis. After which the Congress members expressed dissatisfaction over the minister's reply on the issue and staged walkout.

The issue was raised by members of Congress namely Ramniwas Rawat, Dr Govind Singh and Jeetu Patwari yesterday. They alleged in the House that the private distributors and traders were milking profit out of the crisis and farmers were suffering.

Congress member Ramniwas Rawat alleged that there was a demand of 6.87 lakh metric ton of urea but only 3 lakh metric ton was available during the season. "In some cases urea has been distributed through police stations," Rawat alleged and pointed out, "State agriculture minister has himself made statement that there is a need of eight railway racks per day but availability is restricted to only five racks."

Terming the crisis a persistent demand during the last 11 years of BJP regime, Dr Govind Singh of Congress alleged his constituency in Bhind region was also facing shortage of urea. Besides, the member alleged, scanty rainfall and subsequent moisture stress had adversely affected the mustard crop this year.

He advised the government to come back to 80:20 ratio of urea distribution for government societies and private dealers. Jeetu Patwari, congress member also alleged that as many as 10 districts had severe urea crisis.

Amid discussion, members of Congress and BJP created noisy scene. Mukesh Naik of Congress and Umang Singhar also raised the issue of black-marketing of the fertilizer. While Bahadur Singh Chouhan of BJP said, "black-marketing might be happening at traders' level but government is tackling the issue by taking stern actions."

Congress members Yadvendra Singh and Hardeep Singh Dang also raised the issue of inflated price of the fertilizer in their respective constituencies and alleged that traders were selling it on inflated prices. They alleged the government had failed to make the fertilizer available to farmers even though there was enough supply. As many as twenty members participated in the discussion. The five-day winter session adjourned sine-die today.