Hyderabad: Telangana Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao on Friday, January 2, dismissed the Opposition’s claims of a urea shortage in the state, saying that the government has already sold more urea this season than in the last eight seasons.
Replying to the members’ questions during the Legislative Council question and answer session, the minister stated that in the current Yasangi (rabi) season, a total of 4.04 lakh metric tonne (MT) of urea was sold from October to December 31.
Rao said that the state government was able to procure 5.78 lakh MT of urea against the central allocation of 5.60 lakh MT till December, and that the government was ready to supply fertilisers to farmers as per their needs.
Slamming the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), he said that they trying to spark a debate by only showing long queues at two or three procurement centers out of the 12,000 in the state.
The minister said that an app for booking urea has been piloted in five districts, and since December 20, 1.18 lakh farmers have purchased 3.36 lakh bags of urea through the app. He said all technical glitches pointed out in the app have been addressed and efforts were undertaken to make farmers aware of the same.
Rao said that farmers in the pilot districts have expressed satisfaction with the app.
Earlier in the day, BRS MLAs had carried out a protest over acute urea shortage in the state. They carried placards and raised slogans against the ruling Congress. They questioned how the urea, “which is not available in shops, be available in apps?”
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