Farmers in Madhya Pradesh have been facing an acute fertiliser crisis amid the peak harvesting season. With patience running short, some of them staged a road blockade, while some others resorted to looting bags of fertiliser after demand exceeded supply at a local market in Morena, the home district of Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Adding to the plight, they then had to face lathis weilded by police, who resorted to the extreme measure to control the crowd. All of this was captured in videos.
As several parts in the state are facing the crunch, Bhind and Morena have been witnessing daily protests from the farmers.
In Bhind, the farmers blocked the national highway on two occasions in the last one week. Visuals from Morena showed a stampede-like situation outside a cooperative society where farmers were queued up to get their quota of fertiliser. Police were seen lathi-charging the farmers crammed in the long queues.
Meanwhile, the state agriculture minister, Kamal Patel has claimed there is no shortage of fertiliser in the state and that the Congress party was trying to fuel unrest. He said farmers are getting fertilisers but there are some who are "buying more than what they need". He also blamed Congress for politicising the issue.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that along with ensuring the availability of fertilisers to the farmers, systematic distribution is also necessary. There is no shortage of manure and fertilisers in the state, he added.
He also directed the officers to inform the farmers about all the options of manure and fertilizers and regular monitoring of the available stock should be done. He also said strict action should be taken against black marketing of fertilisers. He also instructed that the status on fertiliser should be displayed on the Collector Dashboard.
Referring to incidents in Bhind and Morena, Congress's state unit chief Kamal Nath said that the rabi season has commenced and there is a huge shortage of Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and farmers are being forced to stand in long queues. "It's a double whammy for farmers amid power shortage," he added, accusing an "unaware" Shivraj Singh Chouhan of being busy in poll campaigning instead of helping farmers.
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