Farmers in Siddipet face four-day wait for urea, Harish Rao blames Centre and State

Siddipet farmers have queued for days to get limited urea supplies, prompting T. Harish Rao to accuse the State and Centre of creating an artificial shortage. He alleged attempts to push nano-urea and divert stocks ahead of elections.

Siddipet: Farmers in Siddipet have complained of being forced to wait in queues for four consecutive days to get a bag of urea, with some saying they would get darshan at a crowded temple faster than obtaining fertiliser.

Bhagyamma, a woman farmer, said she had never faced such a struggle for urea. At Raghavapur village in Siddipet rural mandal, former Minister T Harish Rao stopped to speak to farmers standing in line. They told him the Agriculture Department was giving only one bag to farmers with up to one acre, and two bags to those with more than two acres.

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Farmers said they had been waiting since 6 am, but the agriculture officer did not arrive until 10 am. Staff refused to distribute urea in his absence, further angering the farmers. Rao spent over half an hour hearing their grievances.

Rao said that during former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s 10-year rule, urea stocks used to arrive in April and May, and farmers never faced such queues. He alleged that the present State government was intentionally creating a shortage to push farmers towards nano-urea, which costs an additional Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 per acre for spraying by drone and is less effective than regular urea.

Speaking to the agriculture officer over the phone, he demanded more urea loads to meet demand and instructed that distribution start earlier to prevent long queues.

Rao accused the BJP-led Centre of diverting additional urea stocks to Bihar ahead of elections there, causing shortages in Telangana. Despite having eight MPs and two Union Cabinet ministers from Telangana, he said BJP leaders had done nothing to secure fertiliser supplies. He also accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of ignoring farmers’ problems, and warned that people would teach both national parties a lesson in local body elections.