Urea shortage in Telangana claims farmer’s life
By Sreenivasa Rao Dasari Published on 5 Sep 2019 12:32 PM GMT
Agriculture minister says death was due to heart attack, rules out shortage of urea
Hyderabad: The long queues for getting urea claimed a farmer’s life on Thursday. The shortage of urea has been forcing farmers along with their families to stand in long queues waiting for their turn to get urea. Unable to withstand tiredness as the fatigue eroding, C Yellaiah, a 65-year-old farmer, died while waiting in the queue to get urea. The incident took place at the Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) in Siddipet district, the home district of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
The family of the deceased farmer complained about the lack of infrastructure for farmers and a shortage of urea. According to the family, Yellaiah had been going to the PACS for urea during the past three days. Yellaiah along with his wife, was standing in the long queue this morning and suddenly collapsed. Immediately, he was shifted to a nearby hospital and doctors declared him brought dead.
This pathetic situation is once again highlighting the shortage of urea in Telangana. This situation is putting farmers in discomfort position. Urea is a crop-nutrient and essential input for farmers. After the incident, farmers staged protests at market yards and PACS. The farming community is worried over the possible withering of crop owing to lack of fertilizers.
On the other hand, Telangana agriculture minister Niranjan Reddy ruled out reports on urea shortage in the state. “Farmer Ellaiah died of heart stroke. Anti-TRS forces are making bad propaganda against the Telangana government.
Mr Reddy further said that the state government already requested the Centre to release the entire allotted quota of 8.5 lakh tonnes. However, we have received only 3.97 lakh tones and distributed 2.12 lakh tonnes of urea to the farmers.
BJP Telangana chapter has found fault with the TRS government for its inability to distribute urea to the farmers. “Instead, the TRS government is blaming the Centre for its failure. The shortage of urea is only such places, where BJP recently won in Lok Sabha elections,” said Dr K Laxman, president, BJP-Telangana chapter.
