Pachouri promises adequate urea supply

Bhopal, Dec 21 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri today assured that the Centre would ensure adequate supply of urea to the farmers in Madhya Pradesh and denied the BJP contention that the UPA government was discriminating against BJP-ruled states.

''No political motives should be attributed as the Manmohan Singh government was committed to safeguard the interests of farmers'', he told reporters during a brief visit here.

''Several thousand tonnes of urea had been supplied to the farmers in Madhya Pradesh in the past one week. It was the responsibility of the state government to take adequate measures for proper distribution of fertilisers'', he added.

The farmers of the state were facing urea shortage for about a month due to constraints in providing adequate number of rakes by the railways.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in separate letters, sought the intervention of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Fertilisers and Chemicals Minister Ramvilas Paswan, to speed up urea supply in the state.

UNI SD-SP 1458