Expressing concern over the shortage of urea contributing not only to the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country, but also turning out to be a law and order problem, Congress Member of Parliament from Gujarat and key aide of party president Sonia Gandhi Ahmed Patel on Friday questioned the NDA Government's decision to raise railway freight charges for fiscal 2015-16, as also the latter's continued reluctance to import Urea.
Detailing his concerns in a press note, Patel, who raised the issue in parliament, said that from Bihar to Maharasthra and from Punjab to Andhra Pradesh, lakhs of farmers have complained about facing a severe shortage of Urea.
"In several states, there are cases of truck looting and agrarian protests. The black marketeering of Urea has been reported. In Haryana, Urea bags are being distributed from police stations and farmers are being forced to pay anywhere between 50 to 300 percent for a bag of Urea," said Patel.
The Congress leader further stated through his press note that the shortage of Urea is direct fall out of the government's policy paralysis and added that had the government allowed the timely import of urea, this shortage could have been avoided
"During the crucial sowing months of June - October the government imported only 17.37 lakh tonnes as compared to 43.82 lakh tonnes in the previous year. In addition the government's rail budget has imposed a ten percent hike in freight rate for urea which will result in an additional burden on farmers who are already paying sky rocketing prices for this key agricultural input. The government should immediately roll back this hike," said Patel.
"The NDA government has consistently adopted anti-farmer polices , and the Urea crisis is direct fall out of such policies. It is unfortunate that the government is hiding behind statistics and refusing to acknowledge the urea crisis.It is ironic that recently the Prime Minster launched a nationwide soil health card scheme, but if he continues with such policies, there will no healthy soil left and farmers will just be left with cards," he stated further.
Patel said that the government should allocate adequate transport subsidy and make all efforts to make urea available to farmers across the country in sufficient quantities.
