Bhubaneswar: Amid farmers’ protest over alleged scarcity of urea in some parts of Odisha, the state government Sunday closed 30 fertiliser shops and suspended licences of 62 dealers during enforcement drives, an official statement said.
To check the black marketing and stolen or fake fertilisers, enforcement teams, comprising officers from agriculture, revenue and police departments, have been constituted at the district and block levels, it said.
Regular surprise checks of retail and wholesale points of fertilisers are being conducted across the state to check any illegal activity.
So far, 4,546 retail outlets have been inspected and show cause notices have been issued to 1,202 retailers, the state government said in the statement Sunday.
“Stop-sale notices have been issued to traders in 30 cases. Besides, the licences of 62 dealers have been suspended for alleged violations of the Fertiliser Control Order, 1985. Stock has also been seized on the premises of six dealers,” it said.
There is a “sufficient quantity of fertiliser available in the state”, the government claimed, while requesting the farmers not to be scared by any misleading information.
The Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment has prepared a kharif crop plan of 58.50 lakh hectares for 2025, the statement said.
Accordingly, a supply plan of 10 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers was prepared and submitted to the Centre, it said.
Based on the monthly crop coverage for the kharif season, the Centre has allocated 9.55 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers of various grades to the state, the government statement said.
Out of this, the state has already received 8.10 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers, taking the total availability to 11.04 lakh metric tonnes till Saturday, according to the statement.
The agriculture department said that 8.46 lakh metric tonnes of various grades of fertilisers have been sold to farmers to date, while 2.56 lakh metric tonnes are available in various districts.
The department also said 11,692 MT of urea is in transit to various districts and will reach in the next two days.
Meanwhile, the paddy farmers in Malkangiri district staged a road blockade on NH-326 near Mathili, alleging black marketing of fertilisers during the peak of the crop season.
The agitation brought traffic to a standstill for several hours. After getting assurance from the authorities, they withdrew the agitation.
PTI
