Congress Demands That KCR Supply Urea To Farmers

TPCC president Revanth Reddy today wrote an open letter to CM K Chandrashekar Rao asking for the government to supply fertilisers free of cost to the farmers of the State.

In his letter, he told the CM that on April 13, 2017, he had promised the farmers that from the next financial year, 100% of the fertilizers used by the farmers in Telangana would be supplied free of cost.

Reddy lamented said that like all promises of the CM, this promise of the supply of the fertilisers too had not been fulfilled.

He also told the CM that farmers were not able to buy fertilisers in Telangana.

"The farmers in the State are struggling to find fertilizers today. They are queuing up for urea since the morning at cooperative societies and agricultural cooperative society offices. There is a severe shortage of urea in the combined Nalgonda district. The rainy season's paddy sowing has come to an end. Urea should be applied 20 to 25 days after sowing - else, the plants will not turn green. The cotton crop is also in the flowering and harvesting stage - this is the time when the cotton plants grow branches. The time has come to add complex urea to cotton plants as well. However, for more than 20 days now, there has been no stock of urea in the fertilizer shops in the combined district. The farmers are struggling with this. While each farmer needs 20-30 bags, only one to five bags are being given to them," he told the CM.

Reddy said that farmers in minister Jagadish Reddy's home district and in the Sagar ayacut areas of Suryapet, Kodada and Huzurnagar constituencies, which are crucial for cultivation in the State, were scrambling for urea. He said that due to poor rains, lack of water from the Nagarjuna Sagar canal, and low paddy cultivation under borewells and wells, lesser paddy crop was cultivated this year than in the last year, and added that the farmers were still struggling to find enough urea.

He warned the CM that the Congress would take up a movement on behalf of the farmers if the government failed to fulfil their demands. He demanded that the CM ensure adequate urea for the farmers, and said that senior officers and AIS officers should be entrusted with the responsibility.