HP blames Centre for shortage of fertilizers

Shimla, Nov 21 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Department today held the Central Government responsible for the shortage of fertilizers in the state.

A spokesman of the Agriculture Department said here that non-availability of fertilizers was due to the non-allotment of indented quantity of complex fertilizers by the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

He said that the fertilizer requirement was assessed jointly by the HIMFED and the department of Agriculture well before the crop season and communicated to the Centre for making allotment.

However, despite repeated requests of the State Government to the Ministry of Fertilizers and Chemicals from time to time, no additional allocation had been made, he said.

He said that there was a deficit in allotment of fertilizers to the extent of 2,500 MT in October and 6,800 MT for November.

The spokesman further said that shortage of fertilizers in the state was purely on account of less allotment made by the Central Government to the state as compared to the requirement.

He said that the state government had been taking up the matter with the concerned Ministry from time to time to get the required allocation at the earliest.

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