LUCKNOW: Junawai town in Sambhal district in western UP witnessed a stampeded like situation on Tuesday when a large number of farmers, facing the paucity of fertiliser, assembled at Sadhan Sahkari Samiti to acquire it.
The rush to secure the fertiliser led to an unruly situation where farmers of the area and nearby villages jostled each other to get the quota. The video clips of the massive crowd getting caught in a stampede-like situation went viral on social media platforms.
In the meantime, the district police reached the spot to control the situation. Following the police action, the distribution of fertiliser could be continued smoothly. In fact, Junawai Sadhan Sahkari Samiti comprises of two more cooperatives – Latipur and Rebara - on its premises.
As per the local sources, the farmers had started crowding all three samitis since Tuesday morning and the crowd, comprising women farmers as well, had become massive by noon. The crowd was so huge that long serpentine queues of farmers were witnessed from the cooperative office premises to the nearby highway.
As soon as the distribution of fertiliser started, the farmers started jostling each other to get their quota leading to a situation. As per the departmental sources, all three cooperatives had only 750 sacks of DAP fertilizer for distribution but over 3000 farmers had thronged the venue to get it. After the distribution, a large number of farmers in the nearby villages had to return empty-handed.