CPI-M demands ban on entry of spurious fertilizers, pesticides into Jammu and Kashmir

Due to this menace the farming community is suffering huge losses not only in terms of money spend on purchase of fertilizers and chemicals but also due to adverse damage caused to crops, Malik said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

He said the sudden shortage of fertilizers in the month of March, which is an essential farming period, has taken a heavy toll on the farmers, who are forced to use sub standard fertilizers available in the markets.

He said during the previous years, fertilizer companies were dumping the stocks in the valley to their godowns but during the current year authorities did not allow them to dump the stocks in the valley, he alleged.

Subsequently, he said these stocks were dumped at railway head Udhampur in Jammu region which is the main reason shortage of fertilizers in valley. The bad weather and condition of Srinagar-Jammu national highway also affected the supply badly.

He urged the authorities to lift the stocks immediately from Railway head Udhampur so that adequate quantity of fertilizers is made available in every nook and corner of the valley and farming community may not suffer any more.

Malik said that spurious fertilizers and pesticides have added to the miseries of farmers who have already suffered huge losses due to hailstorms, incessant rains and abnormal weather conditions.

Despite prior warnings about inflow of spurious fertilizers and chemicals in the state, the concerned enforcement agencies have failed to check the menace, he alleged.