The Agriculture Department has decided to initiate stringent action against dealers indulging in irregularities in sale of fertilizer as well as against officials who are found guilty of dereliction of duties.
The department has come up with detailed dos and don’ts that should be followed for sale of fertilizer during the current kharif. Accordingly, the district agriculture officers have been directed to maintain close watch on the movement of rakes carrying fertilizer and inform farmers about the arrival of the commodities in advance. The dealers as well as the primary agriculture cooperative societies should maintain lists of farmers who received fertilizer village-wise to avoid duplication and ensure that all the needy receive their share.
The TS Markfed on its part had been directed to maintain buffer stock of 4 lakh tonnes of fertilzier to avoid any hardship to farmers. No stocks should be held by the Markfed in their godowns at the cost of farmers’ requirement on the ground that PACS are delaying lifting the stocks. The PACS/specified dealer should not give more than the estimated quantity of fertilizer to a single farmer and wherever there is no PACS/dealer network, alternative agency should be identified.
The instructions made clear that stocks should not be allotted to PACS which are financially not sound or defaulters, while the allotment in the peak season to a retail dealer should be limited to two trucks. The instructions make it clear that department officials should be pooled and entrusted with supply and distribution plans in problematic areas within the districts, especially the remote points.
The district agriculture officers on their part should not insist on supply of particular brand/company product. The supply of products should be as per availability and production undertaken by the manufacturers. This apart, the agriculture officials were asked to keep constant vigil in liaison with the checkpost authorities to prevent inter-State unauthorised/illegal movement of fertilizer in the border districts.
It is mandatory to display the prices of the fertilizer along with maximum retail price and subsidy that is applicable. “Any sale of fertilizer above the MRP will be punishable as per the Act,” the instructions said. The officials on their part were cautioned against soft pedalling on the erring dealers as it would be viewed seriously while they were also prohibited from issuing fertilizer licences to dealers through manual processes.
The sale of fertilizer should be through e-POS (point of sale) and no dealer would be allowed to carry on fertiliser sale without e-POS machine. Licences of the dealers who are resorting to manual sale would be cancelled by the respective notified authorities and the e-POS devices available with such dealers be handed over to the other needy dealer in the district.