TSA asks Jairam to apologise over urea diversion remarks
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, September 01 2021:
Thadou Students' Association, General Headquarters (TSA-GHQ) has taken strong exception to the remarks made on urea shortage in Manipur by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on his Twitter account.
In a release, TSA-GHQ said that it "strongly condemns the discriminatory remarks given to the hill areas and people of Manipur by Jairam Ramesh through his personal Twitter account" .
"In his tweet, Jairam said, "BJP's Vikas' in Manipur.
Manipur is getting TWICE the supply of urea it needs and yet farmers complain of shortage! Why? Because urea is diverted to the hill areas in Manipur, where poppy is being grown for opium in large areas in last 4 yrs.
The State Govt is fully complicit in this", TSA quoted.
The students' body then said, "It is quite immature and unfortunate on the part of the Congress, as a political party, that a tall leader who had been entrusted to take stock of the poll bound Manipur state made such a prejudiced statement which hurts the sentiment of the hill people, accusing and implicating the hills people as poppy cultivator".
'Though not known exactly, poppy was cultivated in Manipur since the early part of the 2000s, where the previous Congress-led SPF government was in Manipur till March, 2017 .
But no such anti-social activities were checked and anti-drug campaign launched by the masses and the state government had never initiated any steps to control the menace of drugs until the N Biren led BJP government took up Anti-Drugs Campaign and declared "War on Drugs" in 2018 .
"As regards to Urea fertilizer shortage, the issue has been highlighted every year, irrespective of which party forms the government.
The season for poppy cultivation and paddy cultivation is never the same and moreover, urea fertilizer cannot be stocked for long and months.
Hills people had never been entitled to enjoy such scheme (diversion of urea to hill areas), urea fertilizer was distributed through respective DCS and Agriculture office only," it pointed out.
TSA-GHQ then asked Jairam Ramesh to "tender a public apology for the controversial and discriminatory remarks which he had made against the interest of the hill people within a week's time, or necessary action will be initiated against him" .