Farmers renew demand to scrap app-based urea booking in Telangana

The Congress government has ignored repeated appeals from farmers in Telangana to abolish the app-based urea booking system, despite complaints of poor mobile connectivity, server glitches and difficulty in operating smartphones.

Hyderabad: The Congress government continues to ignore the farming community’s appeal to do away with the app-based urea booking system, citing different reasons. Like last season, farmers have been complaining about the problems faced in booking urea over the app.

Apart from mobile network issues, farmers said many were not comfortable operating smartphones and accessing the app. Furthermore, at a few centres, there have been server issues as well. Considering all these factors, the farming community has been appealing to the State government to abolish the app-based urea booking system.

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However, ignoring their appeals, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy directed the implementation of a system allowing all types of fertilizers to be booked via an app. This was to enhance transparency and speed in fertilizer distribution, he said.

At a review meeting with officials here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the farmers should book urea through the app and the same be distributed via ‘Rythu Vedika’. The responsibility of urea distribution was assigned to the Additional District Collectors, he said.

The Chief Minister advised Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao to regularly write to the Central government regarding the allocation of urea and other fertilizers required for the Kharif season. The MPs from all parties should explain the ground reality regarding the fertilizer situation in the State to the union government. If necessary, a delegation of Ministers and MPs should visit Delhi to make a formal appeal to the Centre, Revanth Reddy added.

The Chief Minister also directed the officials to prepare a comprehensive Action Plan and implement the same effectively in the supply of seeds to the farmers and also the procurement of harvested crops in the ensuing farming season.

He ordered formation of a high-level committee immediately to ensure smooth procurement operations starting from the upcoming season, preventing any inconvenience to farmers. The committee was entrusted with the responsibility of continuous monitoring of seed distribution, sowing of crops to the registration of farmer details, recording of crop information, estimation of produce, and the final procurement process.

In addition to field-level supervision, the committee will facilitate the adoption of modern technology required for the entire farming activity at the ground level. The officials were also instructed to record the details of cultivation of crops in every acre through precise field-level verification.