Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 29:
Demanding a high level committee to probe the acute shortage of fertilisers in the State, the State unit president of the BJP, Th Chaoba said that there is high possibility that the Urea lifted between January and April this year may have been smuggled outside Manipur by high officials in cahoots with the agents.
The Chief Minister should set up a high level inquiry committee to study and compare the quantity of fertilisers lifted from the factories outside Manipur and the amount that was reported to the State Govt, said Th Chaoba.
The farmers are already reeling under the impact of a late Monsoon as well as insufficient rain this year, said Chaoba and added that shortage of fertilisers at this of the year has compounded their woes.
The poor rainfall and late Monsoon is beyond the Govt but making fertilisers available to the people is certainly within the power of the Government, said Chaoba and added that the SPF Government should not sleep over the matter.
A poor harvest will mean not only hardship for the farmers but will also mean escalating cost of rice next year, said the former MP and urged the Govt to do the needful to make the fertilisers available to the tillers of the soil.
If the worst happens, the Agriculture Minister should be made accountable, said Chaoba.
It is a wrong policy in the part of the Government to select agents who do not have the required godowns to store the fertilisers, observed the BJP leader.
As a good number of agents do not have the facilities to store the fertilisers, the same is lifted only when the time comes and this is something wrong, he observed and added that it would be more positive for the Govt to hand over the responsibility of lifting fertilisers to apex societies.