A day after Odisha Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo wrote to Centre alleging short supply of chemical fertilisers, the State unit of BJP on Wednesday accused the Minister of misleading people by furnishing wrong data.
Hitting out at the Minister while addressing a presser here, State BJP general secretary Golak Mohapatra said the Centre has supplied more fertilisers to Odisha than its requirement in the last three years.
“On the basis of available data, the Department of Fertilizers has clarified that there is more available stock of fertilisers in Odisha than requirement. Minister Arun Sahoo should have checked the data instead of writing to the Centre,” Mohapatra said.
Mohapatra said Odisha’s requirement of Urea fertiliser for 2020-21 was 5.65 MT while the Centre has allotted 6.66 MT. “If we go through the data, we will find that the Centre has supplied more fertiliser to Odisha than its need,” he added.
“In this scenario, what is the justifiable basis of Minister Arun Sahoo’s claim that there is short supply of fertiliser to the State by the Centre,” he asked.
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He further alleged that the farmers of the State are suffering due to flawed policies of the State government.
Reacting to the allegations of BJP, BJD spokesperson Lelin Mohanty said, “Golak Mohapatra has no knowledge regarding supply of fertiliser to the State. The Centre is supplying less urea to the State. Therefore, the State Agriculture Minister’s letter bears importance.”
Yesterday, Minister Arun Sahoo wrote a letter to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers DV Sadananda Gowda stating that the State is facing shortage of urea due to short supply of fertiliser in May and June against the allotment.