TNI Bureau: Protesting acute shortages of fertiliser, hundreds of farmers blocked the National Highway-326 near the Mathili of Odisha’s Malkangiri district.

Vehicular movement on the National Highway-326 came to a standstill for several hours following the blockade by the farmers near the Mathili Large Area Multipurpose Cooperative Society (LAMPS) point.

The farmers, with placards in hands, raised slogans alleging non-availability of the fertiliser. Earlier they had alleged the Mathili LAMPS office of diverting the fertiliser stocks for blackmarketing due to which the eligible farmers were deprived of the urea.

The farmers claimed that government had alloted multiple bags of urea to each cultivator. However most of them received only one bag each while the rest were allegedly black marketed.

On the other hand, the Mathili LAMPS management strongly denied the allegations claiming that the fertilisers are supplied to the farmers as per the availability and  government guidelines.

As per the allegations, dealers are forcing the farmers to buy Nano fertilisers, which is being opposed. However, Government remains silent and is not doing anything to fix the problem.