Bihar agriculture secretary N Saravana Kumar on Wednesday said the department had heightened surveillance and monitoring on the distribution of urea in view of its short supply from authorised manufactures, as the state received around 68% of its urea supply against its allotted quota in October and November.
Talking to media persons over reports of widespread scarcity of the fertiliser, Kumar said all district agriculture officers (DAOs) have been asked to keep track of the movement and distribution of urea to the farmers, up to panchayat-levels, due to the shortage of supply this month.
“So far, the state has received about 7,00,105 tonnes (MT) of urea against the allocated quota of 10,30,000 MT for January. The supply of urea was almost 97% of the allocated quota in December last year. We hope Bihar will be able to get its due allotment in January as well,” the agriculture secretary said.
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Kumar had held a virtual meeting with all officials of district administrations and DAOs and asked them to take action against all those indulging in black-marketing of urea. “As many as 6,200 fertiliser installations across the state were raided during this kharif season and 117 FIRs have been lodged against the firms suspected to be involved in triggering the urea crisis,” he said.
He, however, admitted that the shortage of supply in the initial two months of the season in October and November had a cascading effect in the fertiliser’s availability in Bihar.
“The state received about 68% of urea supply against its allotted quoted in October and November. Though the urea supply increased last month, overall shortage of the fertiliser stands around 32% for the entire kharif season,” he added.
Meanwhile, agriculture minister Kumar Sarvajeet, who also reviewed the availability of urea vis-à-vis supply, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of propagating falsehood among the farmers and the people of the state.
“Our administrative machinery has been performing at the optimum level to ensure that the farmers received the urea at the right time. The department has launched massive crackdown against hoarders of Urea. The crisis would prevail until the supply is streamlined from the Centre,” said the minister.