Janata Dal (Secular) leader Y S V Datta on Wednesday attacked the Congress government for not keeping a buffer stock of fertilisers in the State.
“With the delay in monsoon, the government should have applied its mind and kept a buffer stock of fertilisers ready. Presently we have only 35,000 tonnes of fertilisers in the Karnataka State Cooperative Marketing Federation. The demand for fertilisers is 1.8 lakh tonnes,” he said.
Datta said the previous Managing Director of the Federation, Shadakshari Swamy, had given written instruction to all the units of the federation to not buy the buffer stock of fertilisers. There appears to be lack of communication between Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and the federation board.
Immediate relief
Datta appealed to the KSCMF president and sitting MLC from BJP, Basappa Halappa Achar, to use his influence and reach out to Union minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Ananth Kumar, to provide immediate relief to Karnataka farmers by supplying the requisite quantity of fertilisers to the State.
“I hope the Agriculture department takes the issue seriously and rectifies the situation in the next few days. If not, I will stage a protest sit-in on September 2 in front of the Agriculture minister’s office at the Vidhana Soudha,” Datta said.
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