Parijat warns against price hike
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 13 2011: Agriculture Minister Ph Parijat has warned that the lifting order would be cancelled if any of the fertiliser dealers are found hiking the price of the fertiliser while selling them to the public.

Talking to mediapersons, Parijat explained that the price of fertiliser has been fixed by the Government at Rs 529 per bag following an agreement with the dealers.

So, there would no question of leniency if any of the dealers are found hiking the price of fertiliser and selling them to the people.

Fertiliser being regarded as an essential commodity, appropriate action would be taken up under Essential Commodities Act against anyone hiking the price of fertiliser.

With regard to the delay over giving a subsidy of Rs 100 per farmer on purchasing one bag of fertiliser despite an announcement made in this regard earlier, Parijat explained that the process has taken some time since the amount has to be collected from different departments as fund had not been earmarked in the Budget.

The subsidy however would be surely provided to the farmers by the Government through their respective local dealers.

The Minister informed that till yesterday 6171 metric tonne of Urea, including 1263 metric tonne in April, 1653 metric tonne in June and 1131 metric tonne in the current month, have been lifted for this year from the fertiliser factory at Namrup.

A comparative study of the figure with that of last year should erase any fear of shortage of fertiliser in the State, he added.

The number of daily loads lifted from the fertiliser factory at Namrup has been affected following some mechanical problems in one of its factory plants.

Still then, the State Government has been able to prevail upon IFDCO, Uttar Pradesh to allow lifting of 2500 metric tonne of fertiliser which would be brought till Silchar by train, the Minister added.

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