Minister hands over urea to agitating Kumbi farmers
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, August 09 2021: Agriculture minister O Lukhoi visited Kumbi in Bishnupur district where some farmers are staging hunger strike and provided them urea fertilizer at government rate.

Agriculture director Kh Lalmani, DC Bishnupur Krishnakumar, SP Bishnupur Hopeson Sapam and other officials of the district accompanied the agriculture minister during the visit.

The agriculture department treats every farmer equally and provides them urea without any differentiation but it was very unfortunate that some people played cheap politics over urea distribution to defame the government, minister Lukhoi said before handing over urea to farmers at Santhong Shanglen near Kumbi bazar on Monday morning.

He also cleared the misunderstanding agitating farmers had with agriculture department on urea distribution issue.

Problems faced by farmers in getting urea might have hurt them and led to the extreme step of launching the hunger strike accordingly.

However, it is not that government does not want to provide urea to farmers and urea will be provided to farmers irrespective of launching stir or not, 0 Lukhoi said, adding that he came to Kumbi to hear grievances of the agitating farmers and make clear the reality of urea distribution unknown to farmers earlier.

According to O Lukhoi, as the minister it is his responsibility to hear grievances of every farmer of the state and take up welfare activities for them.

"Being a minister, I could have instructed officials of the department to distribute urea to Kumbi farmers but did not do that and came to meet farmers in person to hand over the urea," O Lukhoi added.

For the welfare of farmers of the state, government procures urea from factories and provide the same to farmers at subsidised rate.

Government spends around Rs 6/7 crore merely on transportation of urea from Jiribam to Imphal and if this is counted one bag of urea would cost more than Rs 1,000.However, government provides one bag of urea to farmers at Rs 270, he said and asked if this is not for the welfare of the farmers.

He also appealed to agitating farmers to understand ground reality first before launching any stir in future.

The agriculture minister also made it known to farmers of Kumbi that ex-MLA of the constituency and those intending to contest election had procured 2670 bags of urea through DFO already and hence it would be wrong on the part of some farmers who did not get the same earlier to flatly accuse the government of not providing urea.

Allocation for distribution of 8000 urea bags for Bishnupur district has been made and urea for 1695 farmers of Kumbi who had already submitted relevant documents and verified by the department will be distributed in the first phase.

As per guideline of the department, urea requirement for one Sangam of paddy field is 30 kg but the factory fills 45kg of urea per bag and hence government will provide one bag of urea per Sangam.

Urea provided by the government is more than the requirement, Lukhoi explained.

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