Member of Parliament Dharmapuri Arvind has attributed the shortage of urea to the delay on the part of State government in sending indent to the Centre and also the dearth of funds due to diversion to Kaleswaram project, Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya.
“In a way, the State Government is taking revenge on farmers of Nizamabad district for defeating Chief Minister’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha. It can be understood as a return gift of the TRS regime to farmers. If the discrimination continues in the allocation of fertilizer to the district, the BJP along with farmers will agitate on a massive scale,” he said addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
Mr. Arvind said that the Centre so far supplied 7.45 lakh metric tonnes (MTs) of urea as against its requirement of 7.01 lakh MTs. While the State government asked for 1 lakh tonnes for September, the Centre sanctioned 2 lakh tonnes. In August, an additional 35,000 tonnes was given to the State, and out of the 18 rakes scheduled to arrive in the month, five rakes have already reached, he said.
Describing the shortfall as very alarming, he said there is no fault on the part of officials as they worked well. However, they had buckled under the pressure of Assembly Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy and diverted 9,000 tonnes of fertilizer to Kamareddy district, resulting in shortage in the district, he alleged. Even in the 18,000 tonnes of buffer stock, Nizamabad was meted out injustice as both the districts were equally allocated. In fact, the district was to get 12,000 tonnes as its share as it has higher transplantation of paddy than Kamareddy, he said.
Demanding Minister V. Prashanth Reddy and the ruling party MLAs to exert pressure on the government to get more quantity of urea, he said that it is an issue to be seen without political motive. Irrespective of political ideologies, all must act to address the problem immediately, he said.