Woman faints in queue as Telangana farmers scramble for urea

Farmers in Khammam and Mahabubabad protested severe urea shortages, with a woman fainting in a queue due to exhaustion. Supply mismanagement, limited stock, and unmet promises from authorities are raising fears of crop damage and poor yields

Khammam/Mahabubabad: A woman farmer fainted in a queue line as farmers resorted to protests for urea across erstwhile Khammam and Mahabubabad districts on Monday.

A large number of farmers, including women, queued up at the Nelakondapalli market yard for urea. As they jostled with each other for urea, a woman farmer, Kurakula Mallamma, fainted as she was exhausted standing in the queue. Fellow farmers administered first aid and helped her to rest.

Farmers staged a protest at Wyra mandal Agriculture Department office over shortage of urea. They complained that 50 to 60 days had passed by since paddy was transplanted. The crop was not fed urea and it could affect the yield.

Telangana Rythu Sangham district secretary Bonthu Rambabu said that farmers queued up at society offices and urea supply centres after reading the statements of Ministers that urea has been made available. But they returned empty handed.

Since urea was supplied once a week, farmers have been facing difficulties in getting a single bag. Women, elderly and disabled farmers were facing difficulties as they could not stand in the queue line for long hours and could not visit urea supply centres for days, he said.

Many farmers under Motamarri society in Bonakal mandal could not get urea as the government supplied only 230 bags to the society even as about 400 farmers came to the centre on Monday. Only one urea bag was given to farmers as per serial number. Agriculture Extension Officer Nagasai said that urea would be given to the remaining farmers after supplies arrive.

Farmers had to jostle with each other to get urea tokens at Laxmidevipally market yard in Kothagudem. The authorities gave up as they could not handle the rush. Farmers lamented that they were not able to get urea even after visiting the market several times.

At Thorrur PACS in Mahabubabad district, farmers entered into arguments with officials who could not supply urea even after collecting their passbook and Aadhaar card copies one week ago. Farmers from three clusters, Haripirala, Thorrur and Somaram, who came to the society for urea raised objections over disparities in supplying urea.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao said that agriculture officials were told to distribute urea to farmers without any problems. Due to the lack of urea imports because of geopolitics and the inability of domestic production to meet the demand, farmers were facing shortage not only in Telangana but also in many States across the country, he maintained.