Congress MPs Protest Over Urea Shortage in Telangana
Bhongir Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy alleged that the Centre was deliberately not allocating urea to Telangana
Hyderabad: Congress MPs on Monday staged a protest in Parliament demanding that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre release pending urea stocks to Telangana as farmers were facing hardships. Bhongir Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy alleged that the Centre was deliberately not allocating urea to Telangana.
“In the last week of June, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy met Union minister J.P. Nadda seeking the immediate release of the entire quota of urea to Telaana in July itself,” he explained. Though the Union minister promised to do so, the Bhongir MP said, the Centre had failed to fulfil its promises.
Meanwhile, agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao on Monday conducted a video conference with district collectors and superintendents of police (SPs) to review the urea situation.
The minister said that the Centre had supplied 1.21 lakh metric tonnes (MT) out of 1.7 lakh MT allocated to the state in April; 0.88 lakh MT out of 1.6 lakh MT in May; 0.98 lakh MT out of 1.7 lakh MT in June; and 1.43 lakh MT out of 1.6 lakh MT in July; and 0.82 lakh MT out of 1.7 lakh MT in August.
Nageswara Rao said Telangana was facing a deficit of 2.98 lakh MT of urea because of the BJP-led Central government’s inability to release pending urea stocks. “We are not able to provide enough urea to the farmers because of the Central government,” he said.
The minister said that there should be strict monitoring of urea stocks and steps should be taken to monitor the daily urea stock in the godowns of wholesale, retail dealers and cooperative societies.
