Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Official refutes charge on delay in fertilizer supply

Staff Correspondent

‘No problem in transportation of fertilizers in Dharwad’

HUBLI: Dharwad North MP Pralhad Joshi held a meeting of Railway officials and representatives of fertilizer companies here on Tuesday in the wake of complaints regarding “delay” in supply of fertilizers in Dharwad district.

It emerged at the meeting that there was no problem regarding availability of wagons for transportation of fertilizers as alleged, but the companies were bogged down by other problems.

Taking exception to reports about the Railways not making available sufficient number of wagons to the fertilizer companies, Divisional Railway Manager of Hubli Division Rakesh Vatash refuted’ the allegations by presenting relevant documents.

The representatives of fertilizer companies did not question Mr. Vatash. They said there was no inordinate delay in getting wagons.

But soon after Mr. Vatash left, they started complaining about the additional time required for loading and unloading and other related problems. Mr. Joshi asked them to draft a representation on the problems being faced by the fertilizer companies regarding transportation, storing, subsidy and other areas. Later, Mr. Joshi told presspersons that there was no problem as far as transportation of fertilizers in the district was concerned. The Divisional Railway Manager had agreed to give priority to transportation of fertilizers in the wake of high demand for it from farmers, he said. During the course of the meeting, Mr. Joshi spoke to the Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Rajanna over phone, and informed him that officials would be taking steps to make available 2,000 tonnes of DAP fertilizer available in the district within a week. They had also promised to make soyabean seeds available at the earliest.

To a query, N.V. Chandrashekhar, Joint Director of Agriculture, Dharwad, said that it had been decided to distribute soyabean seeds at a subsidised rate of 75 per cent although the sales had already exceeded funds earmarked for the district.

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