Farmers block roads in Gohana

Our Correspondent

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Sonepat, December 23

Farmers from this district blocked roads in Gohana today in protest against the non-availability of urea for several days.

They blocked the road in front of the new grain market and near a railway crossing on the Gohana-Baroda road, resulting in traffic logjam.

A few farmers — Balbir of Butana village, Satish of Majra village and Sachin of Gangana village — alleged that they had irrigated their wheat fields and application of urea had become the urgent need. “Farmers are not getting urea for the past one week,” one of them said.

Sub-divisional Officer (SDO-Agriculture) Rajinder Kumar Mehra and police reached the spot. The SDO assured the protesters that nearly 17,000 bags of urea would be available tomorrow. Following the assurance, the farmers lifted the blockade.

Farmers get semblance of help

Ambala: Hundreds of farmers gathered at the new grain market in Ambala City today when they learnt that urea was being distributed at a private fertiliser outlet.

The dealer was giving five bags of urea to every farmer after checking his identify card.

Farmers were, however, dissatisfied as they did not get urea as per their requirement. Gurdev Singh of Tharva village said his 25 acres required nearly 50 bags of urea, but he got only five. Gaganjeet Singh and Sarwjeet Singh of Badola village said their crops would be affected if they could not manage the required quantity of urea.

Parveen Kumar, field officer of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), said: “After the recent showers, the demand for urea has increased.”

He claimed that there was no shortage of urea in the district. “Some farmers have stocked urea more than their requirement, creating panic among other farmers,” Kumar said, adding that artificial shortage would be ended soon.