Centre trying to create artificial scarcity of urea in Congress-ruled states: Ahmed Patel

?The central government is trying to create an artificial scarcity of urea in Congress-ruled states, alleged senior party leader Ahmed Patel on Sunday.

Patel further said that the Centre is trying to inflict distress upon the farmers for political gains.

"Central Government is trying to create an artificial scarcity of urea in Congress ruled states. This is not in the spirit of cooperative federalism. Their attempt to inflict distress upon farmers for political gains will not succeed," Patel tweeted.

Patel's statement came days after the central government denied dearth of urea in the country while appealing to the states to ensure uniform distribution of fertilizers during the ongoing Rabi season.

The Department of Fertilizers had informed that against the pro-rata requirement of 21.33 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of urea for the month of December availability across the country is 25.06 LMT. In addition, more than a million tonne of imported urea is expected to arrive in December and January.

"In addition to indigenous urea, we have nearly one million Ton of imported urea at various ports (West coast & East coast) and more than one million tonnes of imported urea is expected to arrive in the months of December and January," read a press statement from the Department.

According to the official statement, the Department of Fertilizers in coordination with Railways has already accorded priority to urea movement from both ports of the west coast and east coast to states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab etc.

The Centre is in regular touch with the respective state governments and state agricultural officers for monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis, the statement added.

The newly-formed Congress-led governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been alleging that the Centre has reduced the supply of urea in the both states.