A severe shortage of urea, a valuable fertiliser, led to a scuffle amongst Madhya Pradesh farmers on December 10. The state has been facing a urea crisis, leading to something of a blame game between the central and the state government.
The shortage itself is not new in the state, as a similar situation arose in 2018, when Chief Minister Kamal Nath assured farmers that the issue would be resolved soon.
In the video above, a situation similar to that in 2018 is seen, where farmers turned unruly due to the crisis, and urea distribution had to be overseen by police personnel.
The Madhya Pradesh government has now written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to release 2.40 lakh metric tonnes of urea belonging to the state quota at the earliest.
Earlier this week, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan staged a protest with farmers and courted arrest, saying “Either you give fertilisers (urea) to farmers, or arrest us.”
According to Ram Inania, a farmer leader who lives and works in Harda, the issue this year was a sudden spike in demand. “The state government was simply not able to foresee the increase in urea demand,” Inania told Down To Earth.
Also watch
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