War of words has intensified between ruling BJD and BJP after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged Centre to ensure supply of fertiliser to the State as per its monthly requirement and to clear the backlog of the previous months.
In a letter, Patnaik said there has been a severe shortfall in the supply of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MOP).
On the other hand, Union Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizers Bhagwanth Khuba refuted the allegations and accused the CM of politicising the issue of farmers. He added that the Centre had provided more fertilisers than required.
However, as per CM Naveen’s letter, only 94,000 tonnes of DAP has been supplied against the requirement of 1,55,000 tonnes. Similarly, 48,649 tonnes of MOP was supplied against the quota of 60,000 tonnes till the end of July.
However, Bhagwanth Khuba claimed that Centre had provided 52,000 metric tonne of DAP against Odisha’s demand of 30,000 metric tonne. Similarly, 45,000 metric tonne MOP fertiliser has been supplied against the demand of 25,000 metric tonne, he added.
“Odisha has been supplied with enough quantity of Urea, DAP, MOP and NPK fertilizers. Modi government has been meeting the demand of fertilizers of Odisha and other states since last eight years. So, I request CM Naveen Patnaik to not politicise the need of farmers,” Khuba said.
On the other hand, BJD MLA Amar Satpathy slammed the Centre and said, “It is very saddening to BJP and Centre playing dirty politics over fertilizers that is highly essential for the farmers. If it is not provided to the farmers on time, then there is no use of it. So, CM took the matter seriously and wrote the letter for the benefits of the farmers. However, Centre is not keen on the plight of farmers and doesn’t bother about them. This is a terrible state of mind and a threat to farmers.”
Congress MLA, Tara Prasad Bahinipati targeted both BJP and BJD for playing dirty politics and said, “No farmer is getting fertilizers because both BJP and BJD are equally corrupt and have embezzled all the fertilisers. This is a direct threat to the farmers and I request the farmers to kick them out and bring Congress back to power.”
A farmer Kartik Panda said, “We have been roaming around for fertilizers, but there is severe shortage. So, we have been going from one shop to another shop.”
“There is availability of all the fertilizers except Urea. CM is writing letter now. He should have taken the step a bit earlier as the Kharif season has come and farmers have already started farming,” said Chandrasekhar Tripathy, CEO, Pataneswari Agri Producer.