BENGALURU: Karnataka Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy said that the state is facing a fertilizer shortage of 38,000 tonnes. He attributed the shortage to the prevailing global scenario owing to the West Asia crisis.
“The State Government officials are in discussion with their counterparts in the Union Government,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.
The minister said there is also a shortage of 14,000 tonnes of urea, and farmers have been told to use less fertilizers and adopt alternative methods.
“This year, the monsoon is expected to arrive in June. Instructions have been given to carry out effective vigilance regarding fertilizer supply. We have taken steps to distribute fertilizers only to farmers through the Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUITS) ID system,” he added.
On irregularities in the agriculture department examinations, he said, there has been a complaint from the Hiriyur examination centre. Based on this, a notice has been served to the vice-chancellor and secretary of the department, and reexamination will be conducted.
On recruitment, the minister said one has to compare how many posts were filled in the last three years under the Congress regime with the previous BJP term.
“It is not possible to fill the posts in five years... these posts have been lying vacant for the last 30 years. In my department alone, no recruitment has been done in the last 20 years, but we have filled 1,000 posts since 2023. There was a delay because of an internal reservation. In the next two months, all posts will be filled,” he said.
Slamming Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, the minister said that the Bidadi township project was not new. “Kumaraswamy initiated it as a smart city; the same has been taken up by DK Shivakumar. We have Electronics City, Whitefield, KR Pura, and Yelahanka, which have been developed now and are part of Bengaluru city. Shivakumar wants Bidadi to be developed like this,” he said.
