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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Run for fertilisers proves fatal for ryot
Notwithstanding the tall claims of the Rajasekhara Reddy government, the fertiliser ‘shortage’ has claimed the life of a farmer in Warangal district. A 55-year-old farmer died when he rushed to take his quota of fertilisers at Station Ghanpur on Wednesday.
As there was heavy jostling among farmers for fertilisers at the distribution centre, the victim, Pallepu Uppalaiah, ran for over 200 metres holding his fertiliser coupon. However, he collapsed and died. The efforts by the locals and fellow ryots to resuscitate Uppalaiah proved futile. The last words the farmer uttered expressed his anguish over his failure to get hold of his fertiliser quota.
The deceased, who was a native of Sripathipally village, came to the mandal headquarters to get a bag of complex fertilisers (BAP) for which he took the token a fortnight ago. He had two-and-half acre land. While locals said he died of fits, some farmers said he might have choked to death as he drank water after falling down.
Earlier, when the farmers gathered at the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) office to get their quota, the authorities said that only 100 bags of fertilisers were available for distribution and asked all the farmers to go to the nearby fertiliser shop dealer. Fearing that they might not get even one bagful, the farmers started running towards the dealer shop and in the melee, Uppalaiah fell and died.
Meanwhile, the death of the farmer sparked instant protests from the farmers and leaders of all the political parties who staged a dharna on the Warangal national highway demanding Rs 10 lakh ex gratia to the kin of the victim.
The agitating farmers and leaders from TDP, BJP, TRS and NTPP blamed the government for the death of the farmer.
Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiam Srihari, Nava Telangana Praja Party leader E Peddi Reddy, TRS district unit president Peddi Sudarshan Reddy and others joined the agitation. With the situation getting out of control, the police resorted to a lathicharge in which 10 party workers were injured. The authorities announced that Rs 1 lakh would be paid as ex gratia to the victim’s family. With increasing fertiliser shortage, the district administration began issuing fertiliser cards to the farmers three days ago in all the mandals. “Each coupon will enable the farmer to get one bag of BAP fertiliser,” a revenue official said. CM tells minister, agri officials to pull their socks up
Hyderabad: Baffled by reports of acute shortage of fertilisers and that it led to the death of a farmer in Warangal district while waiting in the queue for fertilisers, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday asked agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy and his officials to pull their socks up and solve the problem.
While the minister and the officials tried to explain to the chief minister that this year the supply of fertilisers to the districts was on the higher side compared to last year, Reddy shot back saying that if that was the case, then why were there reports in the media about long queues and agitation by farmers in various parts of the state alleging shortage.
The only answer the officials offered was that they were facing some delay in getting the allocated stocks from other states. As per procedure, the fertilisers manufactured in the state are allocated to other states while the state gets its supplies from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and some other states.
According to sources, the chief minister spoke to Union fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan over phone while the meeting was still in progress and urged him to permit the state to use the fertilisers manufactured within the state. The minister is said to have agreed to the proposal in principle, according to Raghuveera Reddy. Nagarjuna Fertilisers manufactures urea, Godavari Fertilisers manufactures DAP and Coromandel Fertilisers complex fertiliser.
According to the minister, so far 4.21 metric tons of complex fertilisers have been sent to the districts as against 3.82 metric tons last year. Similarly, 3.6 MT of DAP has been dispatched.
As there was heavy jostling among farmers for fertilisers at the distribution centre, the victim, Pallepu Uppalaiah, ran for over 200 metres holding his fertiliser coupon. However, he collapsed and died. The efforts by the locals and fellow ryots to resuscitate Uppalaiah proved futile. The last words the farmer uttered expressed his anguish over his failure to get hold of his fertiliser quota.
The deceased, who was a native of Sripathipally village, came to the mandal headquarters to get a bag of complex fertilisers (BAP) for which he took the token a fortnight ago. He had two-and-half acre land. While locals said he died of fits, some farmers said he might have choked to death as he drank water after falling down.
Earlier, when the farmers gathered at the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) office to get their quota, the authorities said that only 100 bags of fertilisers were available for distribution and asked all the farmers to go to the nearby fertiliser shop dealer. Fearing that they might not get even one bagful, the farmers started running towards the dealer shop and in the melee, Uppalaiah fell and died.
Meanwhile, the death of the farmer sparked instant protests from the farmers and leaders of all the political parties who staged a dharna on the Warangal national highway demanding Rs 10 lakh ex gratia to the kin of the victim.
The agitating farmers and leaders from TDP, BJP, TRS and NTPP blamed the government for the death of the farmer.
Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiam Srihari, Nava Telangana Praja Party leader E Peddi Reddy, TRS district unit president Peddi Sudarshan Reddy and others joined the agitation. With the situation getting out of control, the police resorted to a lathicharge in which 10 party workers were injured. The authorities announced that Rs 1 lakh would be paid as ex gratia to the victim’s family. With increasing fertiliser shortage, the district administration began issuing fertiliser cards to the farmers three days ago in all the mandals. “Each coupon will enable the farmer to get one bag of BAP fertiliser,” a revenue official said. CM tells minister, agri officials to pull their socks up
Hyderabad: Baffled by reports of acute shortage of fertilisers and that it led to the death of a farmer in Warangal district while waiting in the queue for fertilisers, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday asked agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy and his officials to pull their socks up and solve the problem.
While the minister and the officials tried to explain to the chief minister that this year the supply of fertilisers to the districts was on the higher side compared to last year, Reddy shot back saying that if that was the case, then why were there reports in the media about long queues and agitation by farmers in various parts of the state alleging shortage.
The only answer the officials offered was that they were facing some delay in getting the allocated stocks from other states. As per procedure, the fertilisers manufactured in the state are allocated to other states while the state gets its supplies from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and some other states.
According to sources, the chief minister spoke to Union fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan over phone while the meeting was still in progress and urged him to permit the state to use the fertilisers manufactured within the state. The minister is said to have agreed to the proposal in principle, according to Raghuveera Reddy. Nagarjuna Fertilisers manufactures urea, Godavari Fertilisers manufactures DAP and Coromandel Fertilisers complex fertiliser.
According to the minister, so far 4.21 metric tons of complex fertilisers have been sent to the districts as against 3.82 metric tons last year. Similarly, 3.6 MT of DAP has been dispatched.
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