MIRPURKHAS, Dec 17: Hundreds of farmers assembled at the Utility Stores Corporation warehouse on Wednesday to purchase urea fertiliser.

They blocked the ring road and raised slogans against the administration for thoughtless distribution of fertiliser. Traffic at ring road remained suspended for sometime, however a heavy police contingent cleared the road.

The Revenue Department, on reports of black-marketing of fertiliser by dealers, was busy devising a policy to ensure availability of urea at government-fixed price to growers after verification of their land ownership.

The dealers were selling it in black to their favourite landlords. Revenue officers impounded trailers loaded with fertiliser and checked the stocks of dealers.

Deputy District Officer, Revenue, Mirpurkhas, Mrs Ammara Aamir Khattak, told Dawn that two loaded trailers of Jhuddo town and two of Sanghar district were caught and later allowed to leave for their destination while one trailer was unloaded at Marvi godown to distribute it among growers through proper procedure.

She said that on Wednesday morning revenue officials along with the staff of Utility Stores Corporation at regional utility warehouse distributed 1,400 bags of urea to growers at official rate.