Glitch in machine, farmers wait for hours to get fertiliser in Jhajjar

Jhajjar, December 19

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Local farmers had to wait for several hours in the cold to buy urea fertiliser from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Kendra, a government centre, located at the grain market in Jhajjar town, on Monday due to a fault developed in the Aadhar Card verification machine.

The situation forced the farmers to approach Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Ravinder Kumar who directed local officials of the Agriculture Department to start providing urea fertiliser to the farmers without further delay. The fertiliser is sold to the farmers on the basis of Aadhar card.

Earlier, the farmers started lining up at the sale counter early in the morning, but the distribution of fertiliser did not start till 11 am. The farmers were told that the aadhaar card verification machine was not working. The distribution of the fertiliser reportedly began around 12:30 pm.

“We have been sitting outside the sale centre since 4 am, but urea fertiliser is not being given citing that the machine is out of order,” claimed Ram Chander, one of the farmers who met the SDM.

Another farmer said they had requested the officials at the sale counter to provide the urea fertiliser against the hard copy of their aadhaar card, but they did not pay any heed to it and asked them to wait for the rectification of the fault.

Ravinder Kumar, SDM, said the sale of urea fertiliser began some minutes after the farmers came to his office regarding the issue. “Later, I too visited the centre to take stock of the situation,” he claimed.

Mahabir Singh, Deputy Director (Agriculture), said the delay in selling the fertiliser urea occurred due to a fault in the Aadhar card verification machine, but the officials were later asked to distribute the fertiliser by taking a copy of the farmers’ aadhaar cards and to do the verification later,” he added. Sahil Ahlawat, Regional officer, IFECO, said the faulty machine was replaced after sometime to provide fertiliser to the farmers.