There is no shortage of urea in Punjab now with the Centre supplying additional 1.1 lakh tonnes of the fertiliser this month, the state government said on Tuesday. The Punjab Government was able to tide over “scarcity” of urea in the state with the Centre enhancing state’s allocation to meet the shortfall, an official spokesman said.
The Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers had enhanced the allocation of Punjab by 1,11,000 tonnes during this month to make up for the shortfall in previous months of October and November, the spokesman said. “Against the demand of 13,15,000 tonnes of urea, the state has already received 7,26,036 tonnes uptill today which was 50,000 tonnes more than as compared to the corresponding period of last year in which, the state had received 6,73,286 MTs,” he said.
“Constant monitoring was being done by the state Agriculture Department to ensure that farmers do not face any difficulty in this regard,” the spokesman said. Earlier, Punjab Agriculture Minister Tota Singh had appealed to farmers not to hoard urea amidst apprehension of shortage of supply saying the trend could lead to artificial shortage. The Punjab Govt had raised the urea issue with PM Narendra Modi, demanding his personal intervention for stepping up urea supply, saying the State faces “acute” shortage of urea that was affecting wheat crop sowing.