No fertilizer shortage in state : CM

Reiterating that there was no shortage of fertilizers in the state, the Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Tuesday blamed the Telugu Desam leader N Chandrababu Naidu for unnecessarily raising the fertilizers issue for political mileage.

Talking to media persons at the Secretariat, the Chief Minister accepted that incidents of an artificial scarcity being created have been reported. He said that this artificial scarcity was being created so that the fertilizers could be black marketed by a few businessmen.

He warned that stringent action would be taken against those who illegally transport fertilizers and hoard them to create artificial scarcity.

A monitoring cell has been set up at the Office of Commissioner of Agriculture to monitor the supply of fertilizers and receive complaints from farmers, he added.

Mr Rosaiah said the agriculture officials have estimated the requirement of fertilizers for Kharif season for 82.22 lakh hactares where cultivation of crop was taken up was 36.75 lakh MTs.

The Chief Minister said that the government was ready to provide the exact details of fertilizers utilized and the stock positions to Opposition leaders if they were keen on this.

Mr Rosaiah advised Mr Naidu to stop the blame game and see what the Congress had done for the farmers’ welfare during its rule. He appealed to the farmers not to believe the `cheap gimmicks’ of the TDP leader over the issue of shortage of fertilizers.

The Chief Minister reiterated his government’s commitment to take all necessary measures to supply fertilisers for farmers on time.

Mr Rosaiah revealed that the government has supplied 31.7 lakh tones of fertilizers to farmers across the state till date and assured them of supplying the remaining quantity soon.

Admitting that the supply of fertilizers might be delayed at a few places due to transportation problem, he appealed to Opposition parties to cooperate with the government in the steps taken up for welfare of the farmers.

The Chief Minister also said that due to intervention of state, the department of fertilizers enhanced the allocation of urea to the state from 2.45 to 5 lakh MTs.

As the state has received good rainfall this year, the government was expecting 2.10 crore tons of foodgrains production in Khariff season, he pointed out.

Mr Rosaiah urged the Centre to allot 48,000 tons of fertilizers, which were lying in Food Corporation of India godowns, to the state. 

Reacting on the incident in which the convoy of the TDP president was attacked in Ranga Reddy district on Monday, the Chief Minister asked the media not give wide publicity to such minor incidents. He asked the media to act in a responsible manner.

Mr Rosaiah also denied the allegations raised against the government by the opposition of delay in giving loans for farmers through cooperative societies.