Karnataka   

Karnataka has surplus fertilizer stocks, claims Deve Gowda

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 Karnataka with respect to “shortage of chemical fertilizers” and cautioned that “the “bungling” could result in a friction between the Union and State governments.

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

“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. He told presspersons that “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”.

Quoting the figures provided to him by top officials in the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (as on June 26) , Mr. Gowda 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.”

Mr. Gowda said he did not want to attribute any motive to any political leader but the issue of fertilizers had been misrepresented 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 were low compared to those with private traders.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Karnataka has surplus fertilizer stocks, claims Deve Gowda
Processions taken out in many taluks
73 p.c. polling in Uttara Kannada
Hike in global prices led to fertilizer crisis? Business sense
Free phone-in career guidance programme
Gram panchayat office damaged
Gulbarga gets child helpline
Farmers demand jobs under NREGS
Madhesis defiant
Over 1,000 farmers get fertilizers
Protest against Hogenakkal project
Woman duped
Prohibitory orders

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu