Agriculture Minister criticises Centre for lacking foresight which resulted in shortage of urea

Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has criticised the Central government of lacking foresight in ensuring timely supply of urea which resulted in a major problem across the country. Farmers are facing a crisis because of shortage of urea which is of vital importance in Telangana during the month of September. Telangana requested the Centre to supply 11 lakh metric tonnes of urea for the ongoing Kharif season and the Centre assured to give 9.8 lakh metric tonnes. But the State received just 5.2 lakh metric tonnes of urea so far, he said. Asserting that there was no scope for black marketing of urea in Telangana, Mr. Nageswara Rao said the district collectors had up to date information about the urea situation in the State. The problem was not confined to Telangana alone and several States across the country were facing the problem of short supply of urea. While the shortage could be attributed to non availability of urea from China, the Centre’s failure in promoting urea manufacture domestically resulted in the crisis, he said in an informal chat with reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday. Coupled with this was the non production of fertilizers in Ramagundam plant since four months and there was no scope for commencement of production for 15 more days. Mr. Nageswara Rao was part of the delegation that reached New Delhi to brief the Centre about the losses caused due to heavy rains in the State last month. The delegation is scheduled to meet Union Ministers J.P. Nadda, Amit Shah, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, K. Ramamohan Naidu and Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday or Thursday as part of their visit. He said preliminary estimates pointed out that standing crops in 2.5 lakh acres suffered damages due to incessant rains and the delegation had prepared reports explaining the magnitude of losses to the Centre. “The Centre has not come to the rescue of Telangana during last season too. We will insist on the Centre to help Telangana liberally to overcome the present crisis,” he said. It was decided to represent the matter relating to proposed airport at Kothagudem to Union Civil Aviation Minister Mr. Ramamohan Naidu during the delegation’s meeting with him.