Rajasthan facing Urea supply crunch : Pilot

Jaipur, Dec 4: Former union minister and state Congress party chief Sachin Pilot has criticised Rajasthan's Agriculture Minister Prabhu Lal Saini for "blaming" farmers for not using alternative soil nutrients to overcome urea shortage.

"It is ridiculous that Agriculture Minister Saini is not accepting the failure of the Vasundhara Raje government for procuring urea on time, and now blaming farmers for it", Pilot said, quoting the minister's interview to a local Hindi newspaper this morning.

He alleged it was due to the state government's slackness that there was a huge crunch in Urea supply to farmers in Rajasthan during the Rabi crop season. Only half of 2.85 lakh tonne urea was available in the state, and farmers were facing acute shortage which was a major concern of worry during the rabi crop season, Pilot said.

"Agriculture Minister should owe his own responsibility and make his department accountable and answerable for major failure, but Saini is blaming farmers and suggesting them to use bio-fertilizers incluidng +gobar khad+ and avoid Urea", Pilot said.

Since it was now the BJP government at Centre and in the state, why this gap in supply and demand of urea, the government should make a reply to farmers, he said. On one side the BJP led NDA government at Centre was going to stop bonus being given by the state on the support price of the crops, and on the other side the state government failed to procure urea and is blaming farmers for not using other alternative of DPA or bio-fertilisers, Pilot added.

PTI