Agriculture Department to handle urea shipment
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 07 2012:
The past practice of select dealers assigned to transport fertilizers into Manipur has been annulled as now the department of Agriculture will directly control shipment of the important agricultural subsidiary.
According to an official source, decision to take over the urea transportation is due to frequent complaints of farmers unable to procure fertilizers in time and the dealers dictating the price by hoarding the urea items.
It is said that following protests by the farmers against the Government's failure to ensure adequate fertilizers at subsidised rate during the previous Kharif season, Chief Minister O ibobi Singh intervened and allocated Rs 9.6 crore to the Agriculture Department.
With the said amount, the Department procured additional quantity of 10 metric tonne fertilizers to plug the shortage and ensure its availability at subsidised rate.
Despite the belated intervention of the CM, the source said, farmers have been provided sufficient fertilizer at the rate of Rs 278.80 per bag.
With the Agriculture Department all set to handle the fertilizer transportation licence of about 40 dealers previously engaged in urea shipment would be cancelled, said the source while conveying that the Department is also preparing an action plan for transporting fertilizers through the National Highway-39 .
The action plan is based on the directive of the Union Ministry of Fertilizers and Chemicals to work a convenient route for lifting the State's quota from designated godowns.