DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Thursday alleged that the BJP government failed to provide fertilisers to farmers on time, with a shortage of diammonium phosphate, or DAP, being witnessed in many places. "There is a huge shortage of DAP in many areas, including Sonipat, Jhajjar, Fatehabad, Hisar and Rohtak. The farmers are wandering from door to door for fertilisers, and the government is sitting idle even as the paddy transplantation season has started," the Congress leader alleged in a statement here.

Hooda said such a shortage has become a perennial problem for farmers because of a lack of arrangements by the BJP-led state government.

"Due to this, farmers have to buy expensive fertilisers in the black market, which also puts an economic burden on them, and production is also affected due to the non-availability of fertilisers on time.

"DAP has completely run out in Sonipat, because 1.10 lakh quintals of fertiliser is needed in this season, but till now only 40,000 quintals of DAP has reached the farmers.

"Similarly, there is a shortage in Jhajjar as well. Barely 150 quintals of DAP were supplied a week ago, but now the supply has stopped, and it has also stopped in Rewari," Hooda said.

He said the total consumption of DAP in Rohtak district is 1.70 lakh quintals, but the entire stock has not reached there yet.

In Hisar, there has been no supply of DAP for the last 15 days, which has made the farmers resentful, he claimed.

Hooda alleged that ever since the BJP came to power, it has neither been able to give the minimum support price to the farmers for their crops, nor proper compensation, nor fertiliser or seeds on time.

"Every season, farmers, their families, women and even children have to wait in long queues for several days, and hence they are not able to get DAP and urea on time," Hooda said.

(editor@dailyworld.in)