YSRC demands release of urea stocks

The YSR Congress party has asked CM Kiran Kumar Reddy to come to the rescue of farmers by eliminating the scarcity of urea and its black marketing in the state.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister on Monday,Sept 10, party farmers’ cell convener MVS Nagi Reddy said the agriculture sector has been facing a server crisis as the Government has failed to supply seeds for the Khariff season in time forcing the farmers to buy them in black market. 

“With the Government giving up power supply to the farmers and rains failing on one side and the farmers not getting bank loans on the other, the agricultural productivity is likely to come down,” he said in his letter to the CM.

Nagi Reddy slammed the agricultural minister Kanna Lakshmi Narayana for announcing that there won’t be any scarcity of fertilizers as 41.55 lakh tones of fertilizers have been allotted by Centre in addition to the Markfed having a buffer stock of 3.17 lakh tones and fertilizer companies stocking 3.31 lakh tones. 

“Despite our party’s warning of fertilizers’ scarcity, the minister made a misleading announcement but the farmers are now forced to buy fertilizers in black market,” he said.

Nagi Reddy told the CM that farmers in several districts are forming long queues at societies seeking urea but are being scared away by the police who are resorting to lathicharging. “Because of your inefficient administration, a urea bag of 50 kg worth Rs. 281 is being sold for an extra amount ranging from Rs.350 to Rs.400 in the black market,” he said in his letter.

Nagi Reddy said while the YSR regime supplied power to the farmers for seven hours a day by purchasing it from other states for Rs 7 to Rs 8, the present government has failed to supply power even for three hours a day.

Finding fault with the government for not trying to reduce the urea price by bearing the subsidy, he said the agriculture department has also failed to launch the market stabilization fund to buy the agricultural produce and help the farmers who are facing severe financial crunch.

“Our leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been asking you for a long time through his dharnas and deekshas that you need to launch a Rs.3000 Cr market stabilization fund to help the farmers, you have failed to take the step,” he said.

In the light of the above, the party is demanding the government to release the urea stocks stored in Kakinada and Visakhapatnam ports immediately and allot more stocks to AP by bringing pressure on the Centre, he added.

“This is very much necessary to bring the farmers out of the present financial crisis as other wise they will suffer further losses,” he told the CM.