Acceding the demand of the Punjab Agriculture Minister, the Union Government has assured to expedite the supply of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and other fertilizers to Punjab and the rakes of DAP will be moved on priority for the state in coming days.
Earlier Punjab Agriculture Minister Randeep Singh Nabha had requested to speed up the supply of DAP and informed that the state has the total due allocation of 5.50 Lakh Metric Tonne (LMT) DAP for Rabi 2021-22 but we were received only 1.51 LMT of DAP. Divulging more, the Minister said that the State had demanded 2.75 LMT of DAP during October-2021, out of which only 1.97 LMT was allocated by the Government of India, for the month of October but we received 1.51 LMT. Thereby, it has created an imbalance & shortage of 1.24 LMT of DAP in October only. He added that the state had already demanded a quantity of 2.50 LMT DAP for November 2021. If we add the deficiency of October-2021, the demand for November-2021 scaled up to 3.74 LMT. He specifically mentioned that against this requirement of 3.74 LMT in November-2021, only 0.68 LMT has been received up till 11 November 2021. The Agriculture Minister said that about 85% sowing of wheat in the State would be completed by 25th November-2021 and now sowing is at its peak. He already instructed the state Agriculture Officials to keep a strict vigil on black marketing & hoarding of DAP and unnecessary tagging of other products along with. He also warned that strict action will be taken against the defaulting dealers/PACS.