Farmer Woes Far From Over: New Congress Governments See Protests, Blocked Roads Over Urea Shortage In MP, Rajasthan

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen and Guna districts staged protests and blocked the roads over the shortage of urea in the co-operative societies. Furthermore, there were reports that protests erupted in Dewas and Neemuch districts also. Meanwhile, Rajasthan’s Hadoti region witnessed long queues outside the cooperative societies offices for urea.

This comes out as the first test for the newly elected Congress government in both of the states in the middle of the rabi season (January to March).

There have been allegations of black marketing by private traders, and the alleged shortfall of urea is because of the rampant sale of urea in the black market.

“A 45 kg bag of urea cost ~250 and farmer gets it in credit when they purchase it from the cooperative society, but private traders are selling it at ~450 per bag, and there is nobody to check it. Traders have been given a free hand because they contributed funds during elections,” claims Anil Yadav (State General Secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union) as reported by Hindustan Times.

Madhya Pradesh, according to figures, needs 13 lakh tonne of urea for the ongoing rabi season out of which it has only received 8 lakh tonne of which 1.5 lakh tonne is still in the godowns.

However, there has been a denial of a shortage of urea supply by officials. Railway racks with 3,198 metric tonne of urea arrived on Friday which was distributed to cooperative societies.

Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, has assured that farmers will not face any urea shortage district level monitoring will be done.