The Union Chemical and Fertiliser Minister Anant Kumar promised manna and sought to convince that all the ills plaguing the fertilizer sector would be solved sooner than later. He was speaking at a function in N Delhi on Wednesday.
Reforms, subsidies, bottlenecks in domestic production, gas, NBA –you name it and the Minister had reassuring words on them. He looked like a Modi-incarnate, said one of the participants to Indian Cooperative soon after the speech.
Setting a deadline unlike his predecessor Mr Kumar promised to clear all subsidy dues within a month. The delay in subsidy is oflet slowing down the sector. Major players in the fertilizer production belong to the cooperative sector in the country.
The captains of the sector felt elated as expressed by IFFCO Managing Director Dr. U S Awasthi tweet “Chem & #Feriliser Min @AnanthKumar_BJP & MoS HG Ahirji spoke very positive for Fertiliser industry in #FAIAnnalSemiar2014. It’s appreciable.”
Kumar himself perhaps felt elated at his performance as he tweeted “We will clear the subsidy payments backlog within a month.” – @AnanthKumar_BJP #FAIAnnualSeminar2014 #IFFCO”.
The Minister also promised to come up with 1000 soil testing laboratories in India, a demand raised periodically by the farming sector. The Union Minister and his junior H G Ahir vowed to make fertiliser industry a viable sector. They asked for suggestion and repeated we are open to them. We would together make this sector envy for others.
The function also saw IFFCO bagging several awards as revealed in Dr Awasthi’s tweet “ #IFFCO is proud recipient of ten awards . My congratulations to all #IFFCO employees.”
IFFCO won the award for Application of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Agriculture, its Paradeep unit got a special award for the Best Performance for 3 consecutive years as well as it bagged the Best Environment Protection Award for a NP/NPK Complex Fertiliser Plant. IFFCO Kandla Unit ended as joint runner up for Best Technical Innovation.
