Badal asks officials to up urea supply to cooperative sector

In a move aimed at facilitating the farmers to get hassle-free supply of urea in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked officials to enhance supply of urea to cooperative societies for distributing it amongst the peasants.
The Chief Minister has asked the officers to ensure maximum supply to the farmers through the cooperative sector so that the farmers "are not be exploited by the private traders through the malpractices of hoarding."
He asked the Agriculture Department to ensure that 80 per cent of urea from Indian Potash Limited was allotted to Cooperative sector whereas remaining 20 per cent was given to the private traders.

Likewise, Badal asked the officers to ensure that 70 per cent of urea supplied from National Fertilizers Limited was supplied to cooperative sector and the rest to the private ones, according to an official release here.
He has also asked the officers to ensure that 100 per cent urea supplied from Krishak Bharti Cooperative was supplied through cooperative sector to ensure that farmers do not face any sort of problem in getting urea.
The release further said that Punjab has already received 9.58 lakh tonnes of urea by January 8, 2015 as compared to the corresponding period of last year in which, the state had received 8.24 lakh tonnes.

"Now there was no shortage of urea in the state for which constant monitoring was being done by the state Agriculture Department to ensure that farmers do not face any difficulty in this regard," the release added.