Fertiliser flying squads to crack down on diversion of agriculture-grade urea

2023-05-09 19:28:38

The Centre has launched a nationwide crackdown to curb diversion of agriculture-grade urea for industrial uses that results in subsidy leakage.

It has constituted fertiliser flying squads which have conducted more than 370 surprise inspections across 15 states to check for spurious or substandard mixture units, single superphosphate (SSP) units and NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) units.

The squad has registered 30 first information reports for diversion of urea, seizing 70,000 bags of the agrochemical.

Around 11 persons have been jailed under the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies Act.

The Centre provides urea at a highly subsidised rate of ₹266 per bag (of 45 kg) to farmers. It has to bear a subsidy of regarding ₹2,500 per bag.

Any illegal diversion of this highly subsidised urea meant for the farmers and agriculture for non-agriculture or industrial purposes by many private entities results in shortage of urea meant for farmers and subsidy burden on the government.

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