Karnataka   

Protest against shortage of fertilizer turns violent

Venting their ire: Farmers throwing stones at a fertilizer dealer’s shop in Davangere on Monday

DAVANGERE: Agitation by farmers against the short supply of fertilizers and seeds took a violent turn here on Monday, with farmers pelting KSRTC buses and shops of fertilizer dealers with stones. The farmers blocked the Bangalore-Pune National Highway for nearly five hours in the morning. Scores of KSRTC buses and some private vehicles were damaged and traffic on the highway was disrupted. Many passengers in the buses panicked when stones were hurled at the vehicles.

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which had planned to organise a victory procession for its six MLAs, cancelled its programme because of the agitation. Minister S.A. Ravindranath and Davangere MP Siddeshwar and BJP MLAs visited the Deputy Commissioner’s office and held a meeting to discuss the scarcity of fertilizers and seeds in the district.

The police who were purportedly under orders not to lathi-charge the farmers, caned some of the protesters when they tried to break into fertilizer shops close to the bus stand in the evening. Four farmers were injured in the melee.

Vehicular traffic in Davangere city came to a standstill following the agitation, and the police had a tough time in re-routing traffic.

C. Narasimhappa, president of the Bharatiya Raitha Okkuta (BRO), said there was a demand for 20,000 tonnes of fertilizers for the season, but there were only 600 tonnes available in the district. If farmers were deprived of adequate fertilizers and seeds, how would they survive, he asked.

Lingaraju, another BRO leader, said if the inadequate supply of fertilizers persisted, then the farmers would be forced to raid fertilizer warehouses and shops of seed dealers to look for allegedly hidden stock.

He alleged that many fertilizer dealers had stocked fertilizers and had been selling it in the black market. Farmers on their part said that they would take agricultural officers to the warehouses where fertilizers had been illegally stored. They demanded that the district administration promptly recover the fertilizers and distribute the stock among the farmers.

Later, Deputy Commissioner M.B. Dyaberi convened a meeting of farmers, elected representatives and district officials.

After a detailed discussion, it was decided to ration fertilizers to farmers on a pro-rata basis through Vyavasaya Uthpanna Sahakara Sanghas in villages.

Each farmer would be supplied one quintal of fertilizer for an acre.

The farmers would have to produce the pahani certificate to get the fertilizers. Over 2,500 tonnes of fertilizers is expected to be supplied to Davangere on Tuesday. Further, it was decided in the meeting to first provide fertilizers to the farmers in the dry belt and then to farmers in irrigated areas.

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