By Sp Sudhir R
Copyright thehindu
MAHABUBABAD
The timely intervention and continuous monitoring of urea distribution in the district by the police, in coordination with the departments concerned, are paying off amid the ongoing urea crisis in the State.
When the crisis began, farmers of several villages faced difficulties in obtaining urea, leading to long queues at depots and alleged black marketing by private traders and a few minor incidents of clashes with the officials, Superintendent of Police (SP) Sudhir Ramnath Kekan entrusted the job of manning the centres and ensuring that each farmer in the queue gets the bags from the centres, besides warning traders against hoarding the bags, to the local police.
The Agriculture and Co-operative Department officials are monitoring the urea distribution. “Police teams from the respective police stations visit the centres as early as 5:30 a.m. every day to prevent disturbances and mismanagement. From Home Guard rank staff to the district level, we are conducting real-time monitoring, including manning fertilizer-laden trucks to the centres from borders,” Mr. Kekan said, adding that he had visited 17 out of 18 mandals in the district so far.
“We have appointed an Inspector-level officer for each mandal to ensure smooth distribution of urea. All ASPs, DSPs, CIs, SIs, and other police personnel, except for a few policemen required for core functioning, has been involved in this massive endeavour for the last 25 days,” he said.
Farmer Venkanna, a native of Thorrur mandal, thanked the police, saying that he had received urea bags under their supervision. The efforts of the police included deploying personnel to monitor supply points, preventing hoarding and black marketing, and ensuring fair distribution.
A constable, Aleem, drove a urea lorry himself after the driver was found intoxicated, safely delivering the consignment to its destination. The district administration has set up urea distribution centres at 64 locations, including Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Rythu Vedikas.
Special officers have been appointed by District Collector Adwait Kumar Singh to oversee distribution in each area. Nearly 30,000 MT of urea has been distributed in the district so far in this season, an official said.
