Imphal: The fertilizer requirement of the state is actually 5,50,000 bags out of which the Centre already allocated 4,40,000 bags, so there is a stock gap of about 1,10,000 bags at present.
Agriculture minister Oinam Lukhoi Singh said this in the House of the Assembly session replying to calling attention motion raised by MLAs K. Ranjit Singh and Surjakumar Okram on the reported difficulties faced by farmers due to non-availability of fertilizers (urea) in Manipur.
A total of about 3,14,000 bags of fertilizer have been received currently by the Agriculture Department of the state, Lukhoi said.
He said the actual price of the fertilizer is about Rs 650 per bag while the government has approved to distribute away the fertilizers at a subsidized rate of Rs 266.04 per bag. As per the government rules and guidelines laid down by the Point of Sale (POS) portal, documents like AADHAR card, land patta, price value of land etc are required for getting access to fertilizers by the farmers, he added. Acquiring fertilizers by logging in through the POS portal is indeed a time-consuming exercise that cannot be avoided on a short-cut basis and this formal process creates problem to the farmers, he explained.
He said farmers cannot violate the rules and guidelines laid down in the portal.
Lukhoi clarified that it costs around Rs 100.80 per fertilizer bag transportation including loading-unloading charges. So a total of about Rs 8 to 9 crore are borne by the agriculture department for just transportation charges of the fertilizers alone. Plan is in the pipeline for mobile distribution of fertilizers to farmers in different districts through concerned DCs, district agriculture officers, elected members and CSOs.
He assured that he will look into the matter if there is any hindrance in the availability of fertilizers in areas like Kumbi etc.
On the matter of politicization in the distribution of fertlilizers to the different hill-valley districts of Manipur, the minister clarified that the agriculture department works transparently and there is no such issue of vested interests and black-marketing. Apart from agriculture purpose, fertilizers are also used in fish-farming, he added.
He said the government actually grants about 45 kg fertilizer per sangam instead of 30 kg as per the department’s guidelines keeping in view the welfare of the farmers. About 1,87,181 fertlilizer bags have been distributed so far as on August 12 and around 32,060 bags are in stock(at hand) to be distributed to all the districts of the state. So altogether a total of about 2,19,240 bags are allocated by the government for farmers of all the districts.
The House unanimously passed The Lainingthou Sanamahi Temple (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021(Bill No.19 of 2021) and the Manipur Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021(Bill No.24 of 2021).
The House also passed The Manipur Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Third Amendment) Bill, 2021(Bill No.20 of 2021) and The Manipur Goods and Services Tax(Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2021(Bill No.21 of 2021) moved by finance minister Shri Yumnam Joykumar.
House also passed The Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) (Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2021(Bill No.18 of 2021), The Manipur (Courts) (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Bill No.23 of 2021) and The Manipur Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Bill, 2021(Bill No.22 of 2021) moved by law and legislative affairs, labour and employment minister Th. Satyabrata Singh.
( Source: DIPR)
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