SAHIWAL: During a protest against alleged artificial shortage of urea fertiliser in Pakpattan, the farmers’ leaders publicly shared, without naming owners, a list of 12 warehouses at different locations where urea was hoarded and sought action against them.

The farmers took out a march against the urea shortage and hike in prices of seeds, pesticides, petrol and electricity rates from the Wapda Office to Deputy Commissioner in Pakpattan and held a sit-on for two hours on Monday.

The protesters criticised the PTI government for failing to protect their interests. They lambasted the district administration for controlling the artificial shortage of urea fertilizer in the district and chanted slogans against it.

The farmers’ leaders alleged that urea fertilizer was lying in abundance at different warehouses but the hoarders wanted to loot them by creating its ‘artificial shortage’ in the local market.

Addressing the protesters, Malik Yasin, the provincial general secretary of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI), said that instead of taking steps for welfare of the farmers, the PTI government had increased the cost of inputs. They said the official rate of urea was Rs1,768 but it was being sold in black market at Rs2,200 and Rs2,400.

Shah Nawaz, the district president of the PKI, said the farmers were earlier facing the DAP shortage and now local hoarders had created a shortage of urea fertilizer.

Abdur Rehman Wattoo said if urea was sold in black instead of the open market, it meant the local district administration was a part of the exploitation of farmers.

The farmers demanded action against the hoarders, saying the situation would improve if the district administration wanted to do that. They gave three days time to local administration to end artificial shortage of urea.

DC Ahmer Sohail told Dawn by phone that the administration was checking stock registers of warehouses and action would be taken in case of any discrepancies. He denied the reports of the shortage of urea in the district.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2021