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State has surplus fertilizer stocks, says Deve Gowda

Special Correspondent

Government accused of misleading the legislature on fertilizer shortage

Cooperative outlets not given sufficient stocks: Deve Gowda
‘State has a stock of 2.5 lakh tonnes of fertilizers’

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

FACT FINDING MISSION: Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda (right) and the former Minister D. Manjunath addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Friday on the fertilizer issue.

BANGALORE: The former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda on Friday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the State with respect to “shortage of chemical fertilizers” and cautioned the State Government that “the “bungling” could result in a friction between the Union and State governments.

Mr. Deve Gowda said Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had misled the two Houses of the State legislature by blaming the Centre for the fertilizer shortage.

Breach of privilege?

“It is for the Opposition to ponder over whether the matter constitutes a breach of privilege and take it up in the legislature when the two Houses meet in mid-July,” he said.

The former Prime Minister told presspersons “there is no shortfall in the supply of fertilizer to the State and, in fact, the State has received much more than the requirement this month. It is another matter that there is not much availability of fertilizers in the open market”.

Break-up of figures

Quoting the figures provided to him by top officials in the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (as on June 26) , the former Prime Minister said he failed to understand why there was shortage. “The State Government had a stock of 2.59 lakh tonnes of urea while the requirement was 1.20 lakh tonnes. Only 65,300 tonnes of urea had been sold in the State.

With respect to DAP (di-ammonimum phosphate), the State requires 1.10 lakh tonnes and the availability is 1.23 lakh tonnes and that sold so far is 65,330 tonnes. MOP (Murate of phosphate) requirement is 45,000 tonnes, availability 56,140 tonnes and sales so far 33,860 tonnes.

The requirement of complex fertilizer is 1.10 lakh tonnes, availability is 71,270 tonnes and sales so far 48,240 tonnes (figures as on June 26).” Mr. Gowda said he did not want to attribute any motive to any political leader or the officials leave alone the Chief Minister but the issue of fertilizers had been mis-represented by the Government, and feeding wrong information to the supply chain had resulted in artificial scarcity.

The fertilizer stocks available with the cooperative marketing outlets managed by the Karnataka State Cooperative Marketing Federation was low compared to that made over to private traders.

“It is now for the Government to come out with facts on the quantum of fertilizers made over to cooperative institutions and to the private traders and the quantum of sales.” He said it was improper for the Chief Minister to be repeatedly state that the Centre had shown a “step motherly attitude” not merely to the State but to other non-Congress party ruled States.

Substantial

“The Centre has released a substantial quantity of fertilizers to Gujarat where the BJP is ruling.

“It is wrong to state that the Centre is trying to gag the non-Congress governments. I am sure in matters of providing agricultural inputs no political party, leaders or officials will play foul games,” he said.

Referring to the Chief Minister’s idea of taking an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to request for an adequate supply of fertilizers, the former Prime Minister said there was no need for such a trip to Delhi since the Centre had met the requirement of the State.

“It is for the State Government to work for a healthy relationship with the Centre. Adopting a confrontationist stand will only affect the interests of Karnataka,” Mr. Deve Gowda said.

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