Government cancels 5,371 licences of fertiliser firms for malpractices during Apr-Nov: JP Nadda

New Delhi: Insisting the Centre is taking touch action to curb malpractices of fertiliser, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Jagat Prakash Nadda on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has cancelled 5,371 licences of fertiliser firms for black marketing, hoarding as well as for distributing substandard material.

"We would like to tell you, as you asked, from April 1 to November 28, there were 5,058 show-cause notices in black marketing, FIRs were lodged in 442 cases and licences cancelled were 3,732," Nadda said during Question Hour.

Similarly, with regards to hoarding, there were 687 show-cause notices, 202 licence cancellations and 446 FIRs. In the case of distributing substandard material, show-cause notices were sent to 3,811 firms, as many as 1,437 licences were cancelled and 65 FIRs filed.

The minister also informed that in case of diversion, there were 3,058 show-cause notices, 464 licence cancellations and 96 FIRs.

"If I talk about show-cause notices in the past 7 months, it is 12,814, and 5,835 licences were cancelled and 649 FIRs lodged. Out of this, 442 FIRs have been lodged on black marketing," Nadda said.

While states are empowered to take action on malpractices, the Centre takes action under the Essential Commodities Act of 1955 and the Fertiliser Control Order to check malpractices such as diversion, hoarding and overpricing. He said action on substandard material is taken under the Fertiliser Control Order.

The minister said that the Centre has supplied fertilisers to every state and the supplies are monitored in real time through Integrated Fertiliser Monitoring System.

"Although we also know that the fertilizer is being diverted, it is also a known fact that the dealers are hoarding which has to be taken care of by the state government. But as far as the material is concerned, the fertilizer is concerned, they have reached on time everywhere," Nadda said.

He said a farmer may have capacity to use 10 bags but he takes away 50 bags which needs to be taken care of and the state government needs to provide support to the Centre in handling it.

Nadda said that the ministry will discuss the issue with dealers and companies to ensure that farmers should not be forced to purchase additional products beyond fertilizer when they visit the dealers.