Former minister slams govt over fertiliser shortage in Haryana

Former minister and Congress leader Prof Sampat Singh Thursday said the BJP government should take cognisance of the burning issues of farmers and take measures to resolve the same.

In a press note issued here, Singh said the crisis of DAP fertiliser had deepened in Haryana during the ongoing rabi sowing season. “If the fertiliser is not available in time, then the time for sowing the crop will get delayed and it will result in loss to the farmers,” he said. He alleged that the government and officials were repeatedly misleading people about the availability of sufficient quantities of fertiliser even as the farmers were facing harassment due to the shortage.

“The farmers are scampering to get DAP and urea fertilisers and stand in queues for hours even at night. Even after a long wait, they have to buy the fertiliser bags at inflated rates from the black market,” he alleged adding that the fertiliser dealers are forcing the farmers to purchase the bags of nano urea, sulphur, zinc, sagarika, khal and churi etc on providing the fertiliser bags to them.

The former minister said the Central and state BJP governments claimed to give minimum support price to the farmers on 24 crops. “But on the ground, the farmers are troubled at the time of crop purchase. This time, the government had fixed the time for paddy purchase from October 1. But the farmers were harassed for the whole month on the pretext of moisture in the paddy. In the end, the farmers got upset and had to sell their paddy at very low prices,” he alleged.

Similarly, a condition of three quintals per acre was fixed for the procurement of moong, Singh alleged adding that the farmers growing moong had to sell half of their produce at very low prices. “The farmers are facing strict laws for burning stubble. There is a delay in sowing wheat. The farmer's crop is lying in the open in the market. All these problems of the farmers should be solved immediately,” he demanded.