SIDDIPET: A farmer in Siddipet on Thursday morning died while standing in the queue to collect urea.
Farmers across the state have been agitating against the shortage of urea and serpentine queues are being witnessed in almost all towns of the state.
Sixty-nine-year old Ch Yellaiah collapsed while standing in the queue at the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) located at Dubbak Mandal. He died while being shifted to the area government hospital and was declared brought dead. He was a native of Atchimayipally village in Dubbak Mandal.
According to information available, he was visiting the PACS every day and returning empty-handed. As usual, he arrived at the society at around 8 AM Thursday morning. He collapsed half an hour later. Other farmers standing in the queue rushed him to hospital but in vain.
Yellaiah is survived by a wife and four daughters, three of whom are married. He had been cultivating cotton crop for the last three years and required urea like other farmers to start cultivation.
The scarcity of urea is observed for the first time in Telangana. If the late onset of monsoon had caused enough damage for kharif crop, non-availability of urea is killing hope for even a reasonable yield. In almost all villages and towns across the state, long queues are being witnessed with farmers entering into arguments with dealers and staff of primary cooperative agriculture societies.
Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy said the state government had requested the Centre last month to release the entire allotted quota of 8.5 lakh tonnes but only 3.97 lakh tonnes were released. Of this only 2.12 lakh tonnes of urea has reached the farmers.
The Minister's statement triggered a war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Telangana's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
BJP state president K. Laxman alleged that the TRS government was blaming the Centre to hide its failures. He said that the shortage was deliberately created in some districts where the BJP is strong.
The main opposition Congress party also targeted the TRS for failing to ensure supply of urea to farmers. Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the government had betrayed the farmers.
(With IANS inputs)