LUCKNOW: Even as the farmers’ protest against new farm laws continues to rage, the UP government has sounded an alarm over the possibility of fertilizer stock sneaking out of the state and across the international boundary. This could result in artificial shortage of the key agricultural ingredient—that too at the start of Rabi season.
The alarming fact has come to light in a missive (dated October 24) dashed by the agriculture department to DMs of 41 districts including Saharanpur, Rampur, Bareilly, Pilibhit, GB Nagar, Ghaziabad, Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich which share a boundary with a state or Nepal. Additional chief secretary (agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi has asked authorities in these districts to pick top 100 retailers and examine if fertilizers sold by them made way to farmers in the neighbouring state or across the border.
He has also asked authorities to initiate legal action against retailers and persons who procure fertilizers without showing land records and engage in “illegal trading”. The measure comes less than a week after the state government initiated steps—including usage of point of sale machines after due assessment of the cultivable area of farmers—to arrest unregulated sale of fertilizers. This also comes amid stepped up procurement of phosphate fertilizers by farmers in the wake of sowing of Rabi crops like wheat, barley, peas, gram and mustard.
The agriculture department has specified that fertilizer “should not” be sold to farmers in neighbouring states. Within the state, fertilizer should be provided only to farmers who show their land records. According to rules, fertilizer registration should not be provided to any private person within 5km of Nepal border.
Chaturvedi said that DMs may rope in police and state investigation bureau to keep a hawk-eyed vigil on the inter-state and international border and take appropriate action against persons engaged in “illegal” trading of fertilizer. Police outposts on borders are on alert and a mobile team of officials from administration, police and agriculture is deputed to carry out raids besides other measures against unauthorised persons.
Earlier this month, the agriculture department had asked the district authorities to stop wholesale stockists from hoarding fertilizers that could eventually lead to rise in their prices locally. The state government had also sought monitoring of cooperative societies and private sellers by a team of officials from the agriculture, cooperative, rural development and other connected departments.
