HYDERABAD: Hitting back at state BJP chief N Ramchander Rao for claiming that the state government was creating an artificial shortage for urea, Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao on Thursday advised the former to check the facts with the Centre, instead of levelling such baseless allegations.
In a press statement issued here, the minister said that out of 7.04 LMT urea available in the state, 6.52 LMT has already been sold and 0.76 LMT are currently in stock. He added that not just Telangana, even states like AP and Tamil Nadu too were facing shortage.
He said: “The BJP state president’s allegation that Centre had given Telangana more urea than required but the state failed to distribute it was entirely baseless.”
The minister also ridiculed Ramchander Rao’s demand for a CBI probe into the urea shortage issue. He said that the urea stock available till April this year was 1.92 LMT.
“The Centre allocated 1.7 LMT in April but supplied only 1.21 LMT. In May, it allocated 1.6 LMT but supplied only 0.88 LMT. In June, the allocation was 1.70 LMT and supply 0.98 LMT. In July, the Centre allocated 1.60 LMT and supplied 1.43 LMT. Similarly, in August, it allocated 1.70 LMT but so far it has supplied 0.62 LMT,” he said.