Amid news of shortage and black-marketing of urea dominating the media headlines in Bihar, BISCOMAUN is doing for the state what NAFED did in case of onions in Delhi, told a proud Chairman Sunil Singh.
There is huge black-marketing going on in the state with urea price touching the sky. It is selling Rs 500 per bag in several districts such as Sasaram and Bhabua, said Sunil.
On the contrary, we are selling it at Rs 284 per bag through the apex marketing body of state Biscomaun. We have opened up several centres and are selling it cheap to our farmers, noted Sunil.
On the question as to how did Biscomaun manage to get urea Sunil thanked Kribhco Chairman Chandra Pal Singh. “It was due to my personal request to Chandra Pal Bhaiyya that we could get urea from Kribhco and farmers of the state are benefitting”, he said in chaste Hindi.
Govt has not been able to work out the option of direct benefit transfer in several meetings it has held so far. There is no agreement on what criteria ought to be used for identifying the eligible farmers.
The criteria of landownership would exclude majority of farmers and it could also result in the emergence of a black market for urea as not all farms require the fertilizer. At present, the subsidy is paid to urea producers and importers, not farmers.
In the last meeting aimed at finding a solution also ended without any decision. Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Niti Aayog Vice- Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi were among those present at the meeting.