HYDERABAD: The Additional Secretary to the Department of Fertilisers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Dharm Pal directed the State government officials to sell the fertilisers to farmers only through e-Pos (electronic point of sale) machines. He asked the officials to send the e-Pos machines to any district where they are required and the District Collectors to monitor the direct benefit system (DBT) for giving fertiliser subsidy to farmers.
Dharm Pal held a meeting with Chief Secretary SK Joshi at the Secretariat on Thursday on fertiliser DBT. He wanted the officials to educate the farmers to take the receipt after purchasing the fertilisers through e-Pos machines.
Dharm Pal said that. The DBT for fertilisers was being used from January 1, 2018 and so far 541.46 lakh tonnes of fertilisers were sold through e-Pos machines in the country, Pal said. He wanted the officials to oversee that all the farmers get the required quantity of fertilisers.
Chief Secretary SK Joshi informed Dharm Pal that the Telangana government appointed 5,000 agriculture extension officers (AEOs). Each AEO would cover as much as 5,000 acres of farm and provide services to around 2,000 farmers.
Joshi said that once the system gets implemented, the fertilisers would be sold to farmers only through e-Pos machines. He said that sufficient stocks of fertilisers were available in the State. Finance Principal Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao and Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Special Chief Secretary B Rajasekhar were present on the occasion.
Nation already equipped with e-Pos machines
According to the available statistics, around 2.22 lakh e-Pos machines are being used across the country. The respective authorities have been providing training to as many as 8,000 staff for operating and maintaining these machines