Opposition blames Odisha government for fertiliser crisis, blackmarketing
BHUBANESWAR: A day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to the Centre about the short supply of fertilisers to the State, Opposition BJP and Congress slammed the BJD government for artificial scarcity and black-marketing.
Claiming that the pro-rate supply of different types of fertilisers is more than the actual monthly need of the State, the BJP on Saturday said the State government is trying to cover up its failure to check black marketing by shifting the blame to the Centre.
“Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Bhagwanth Khuba has already made the supply position clear on Friday. The Chief Minister is misleading the people as he has been kept in dark about the availability of fertilisers,” said BJP MLA Nauri Nayak.
He said urea availability in Odisha as on August 25 was 2.04 lakh tonnes against its requirement of 80,000 tonnes. Similarly, the Centre supplied 52,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) in August against the requirement of 30,000 tonnes. In the case of muriatic of potash (MoP), the State has a surplus stock of 20,000 tonnes against its requirement of 25,000 tonne.
Nayak said the State has one lakh tonne of surplus stock of complex fertilisers (NPKS) when its requirement in August was only 40,000 tonnes. State BJP Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit said the fertiliser scarcity in the country has become a thing of the past after the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre. He said a similar crisis was created last year by allowing the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) and private traders to black market fertilisers.
Purohit said TNIE had published a report on August 8 on the artificial scarcity of fertilisers and sale of different chemical nutrients almost double the price of the actual cost fixed by the Centre.“There is nothing to hide. The data on fertiliser supply to all states is available on the official website of the Fertiliser Ministry. The Chief Minister is being misled by his officials,” he said.
Since there is a good run of monsoon across the State, there is a huge demand for chemical fertilisers. While denying any deficit of fertilisers in Odisha, Khuba, who was on a visit to the State told reporters on Friday that the State government is doing politics over farmers. Congress MLA Suresh Kumar Routray too hit out the BJD government for the artificial crisis and black marketing of fertilisers.