Chandigarh,
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today hit out at the BJP government at the Centre and in the state for shortage of fertilisers.

He alleged that anti-farmer policies of the governments were responsible for it. He stated that the licences of a majority of primary agriculture cooperative societies, which distributed fertilisers in villages, had not been renewed.

He said the government should have renewed the licences or allowed the cooperative societies to distribute fertilisers using old licences before framing its new policy.

“The BJP government is busy holding ‘chintan shivir’ on one pretext or the other, but does not have any ‘chinta’ (concern) for problems of farmers,” Hooda claimed.

He said there was confusion following issuance of a new rule prescribing that only those dealers having degree or diploma in agriculture or special certificate course on farm inputs were to be issued licences.

Hooda said the state government should have stepped in and impressed upon the Central government to exempt cooperative societies from this rule.

“Farmers have suffered a lot in the past three years due to indifference of the state government. Earlier, there was scarcity of urea and farmers had to get their quota of fertilisers at police stations. Now, they are being forced to buy it on the black market,” he alleged.

He said it was ironical that the government talked of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, but had been taking decisions that were driving them into a debt trap.

Hooda castigated the government for excluding tractor from the list of non-transport agricultural vehicles and alleged loot of farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna. He warned that the Congress would launch an agitation against the state government if it failed to address the problems of farmers immediately.