Traders’ greed and lack of proper supervision by the officials concerned is making the farmers scamper for urea at some places in Telangana, even as the kharif season in coming to an end and the rabi cultivation is yet to gain momentum.
Though the fertilizer stocks in most of the districts are sufficient to meet the demand, there is some shortage in districts such as Nalgonda. According to reports, the traders’ greed to make fast buck was creating artificial scarcity of urea even in districts where it is available in required quantities.
A large number of farmers descended on old market areas in Miryalguda of Nalgonda district to purchase urea, but most of them had to return disappointed as the stock was limited. At one point of time, the police found it difficult to control the large number of farmers who arrived at the market. Officials stated that the district has received about 75,000 tonnes of urea so far against the requirement of 95,000 tonnes.
A week ago, similar scenes were witnessed at Kalwakurthy, Talakondapalli and Midzil of Mahabubnagar district where the farmers took to streets protesting against hoarding of stocks.
Artificial scarcity of urea has been forcing farmers to protest in streets in Warangal, though supplies were more than the required quantity. District Collector G. Kishan said 1,47,904 tonnes of urea was received in the district in addition to previous stock of 20,790 tonnes. In practical terms, the district has 21 lakh bags of urea against the requirement of y 13.5 lakh bags.
However, by creating artificial scarcity in the absence of proper supervision the traders are selling a bag of urea at Rs. 360 against the actual price of Rs. 285. There has been no shortage of urea in Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts. Against the normal requirement of 1.25 lakh tonnes in Nizamabad for kharif, only 90,000 tonnes were received this year but about 11,000 tonnes are still lying unsold due to erratic monsoon. Sales are very poor in Karimnagar too where 6,292 tonnes of urea are available.
(With inputs from T. Karnakar Reddy in Nalgonda, K.M. Dayashankar in Karimnagar, Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao in Warangal and P. Ram Mohan in Nizamabad)
