Sambalpur: Farmers surrounded C.D.A.O over Urea risis
Warning to lock the office if situation is not improved within 3 days
Sambalpur: Farmers on Monday surrounded the Chief District Agriculture Officer Tankadhar Sahu and demanded his answer after the news of acute shortage of urea fertilizer in Sambalpur district. Taking advantage of the inaction of the agriculture department and the silence of the district administration, some unscrupulous employees and businessmen were selling fertilizers in the black market, alleging that ordinary farmers were suffering from lack of urea. They questioned why the private dealers have sufficient supply of urea while the cooperatives supplied under the government system are left with no fertilizer.
At such a time, some departmental staff, dealers and businessmen take advantage of this unethical work. He said that for the first time this year, the poor farmers are being exploited in the district. As the situation became tense, the police intervened. The chief agricultural officer could not give any answer to the farmers’ questions. Finally, in the presence of the police, he spoke to District Magistrate Ananya Das and promised to improve the situation within 2-3 days. The District Collector himself said that he would look into the availability of urea. Then the farmers returned after a 3-day stay. Mati’s son Arvind Padhi, who took charge as the new Agriculture Secretary, was scheduled to visit Sambalpur on Tuesday. Neither the agriculture department nor the district administration could take any steps to solve it. No discussion with the farmers, no consultation. On the other hand, the district magistrates and agricultural officials held meetings with the dealers which boosted their courage. Later, due to lack of attention of the agriculture department, most of the urea fertilizers that came to the district went directly to the traders from the back points. While Markfed remained inactive, cooperatives did not get the required amount of fertilizer.
As a result, farmers are forced to go to private dealers and are victims of black market, they are forcing farmers to take urea with micro nutrients, nano urea etc. In rural areas, illiterate, simple people are seen directly demanding more than the fixed price and doing black market. They alleged that small farmers in the interior are suffering the most from this fertilizer crisis. Alleged that these processes are man-made and massive corruption is hidden in them. Harishankar Purohit, Umesh Mishra, Byomkesh Thakur, Bivu Patnaik, Pradeep Pan, M. Gobindu, Devendra Pradhan, Bhairav Pradhan, Bipin Bhoi, Dilip Sahu, Tarani Bhoi, Ashwini Hota, Shantanu Pradhan, Satyanarayan Pradhan played important roles in this gathering of Sambalpur District Farmers’ Organization.
