Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 29: Director Agriculture Kashmir, Altaf Aijaz Andrabi today directed the officials to act against the defaulters holding fertilizer license and take steps to end the illegal trading of fertilizers in the Kashmir Valley.
Andrabi took the stock of availability and requirement of fertilizers in Kashmir Division. He stressed upon the companies to supply the required stocks of fertilizers till December 31, 2018. He also cautioned the fertilizer suppliers that any shortage of fertilizers would adversely affect the crop production in the region.
Director Agriculture instructed the officers to monitor the supply and stock position of fertilizers on daily basis and book the defaulters under law who hamper the fertilizer supply in the valley. Joint Director Agriculture Extension, Mohammed Iqbal Chowdhary was directed to cancel all the licenses of the defaulting dealers.
Joint Director Extension informed the meeting that total fertilizer requirement of Kashmir division, including Horticulture crops for 2019-20 is 1.4 lakh metric tonnes of urea, 79615.9 metric tonnes of DAP and 39319.5 metric tonnes of MoP and at the present there is a shortfall of 81,000 MTS as per Rabi requirement which needs to be stocked at an earliest in Kashmir region.
Wholesalers raised their demand for secondary freight charges and restoration of the Nowgam, RAKE point at Srinagar at an earliest. The Director assured the wholesalers that the issue will be resolved soon.
Director Agriculture impressed upon the officers for a transparent and accountable mechanism in the fertilizer business. Wholesalers were also asked to update the PoS machines as per the latest version and all the transactions may be incurred through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
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