Thaindian News

Hyderabad, Sep 6 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh’s opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Thursday voiced concern over the incidents of police baton charge on farmers demanding fertilizers and has asked the state government to streamline the supply of fertilizers.

TDP legislator R. Chandrasekhar Reddy accused the Congress government of mismanagement and failure to get adequate quantity of fertilizers from the central government.

“Not a single day is passing without police resorting to lathicharge on farmers in some district,” he told reporters here.

Reddy said Andhra Pradesh may be the only state in the country where the government is selling the fertilizers at police stations.

He alleged that the farmers were badly hit by the fertilizer crisis with few days left for the kharif crop season to end.

Reddy pointed out that the prices of fertilizers were hiked 10 times during last three years and the shortage had only added to the farmers’ woes.

The former MP said the government had failed to protect state’s interests despite the fact that the Congress-led UPA government was surviving because of the 33 MPs the ruling party has from the state.

He claimed though Kakinada port in the state received shipment of fertilizers but the entire stock was transported to Karnataka and Kerala.

Reddy claimed the central government was not providing the stocks to meet the demand. During 2011-12, the central government supplied 70.84 lakh ton fertilizers against the demand for 85 lakh ton, he said.