FAISALABAD: Farmers on Tuesday stopped a trailer loaded with urea fertiliser bags near Saloni Jhal, Dijkot, to protest unavailability of the product.

They also staged a protest demonstration against the government for not ensuring supply of urea and DAP fertiliser for them and allowing the hoarders to sell it at exorbitant prices. The driver reportedly told the farmers that he was on way from Sadiqabad to Faisalabad to provide supply of the fertiliser when traders forcibly tried to unload the bags.

The growers told reporters that they were perturbed by the shortage of the fertiliser and its high prices. They said the government had completely failed to bridle the hoarders and the profiteers who were fleecing the farmers with impunity.

They said they were reading reports in the media that crackdown on profiteers and fertiliser hoarders was under way but the situation seemed otherwise. Why would they stop the trailer carrying the fertiliser bags if the commodity was available in the market, they argued. They said they urgently needed the fertiliser for wheat and its shortage could land the farmers and the masses in trouble in the days to come.

A police team pacified the farmers and helped the trailer go to its destination.

A district administration official said the government was conducting raids on a daily basis and had seized thousands of bags stored in warehouses, sealed the stores and also imposed fines on the traders. He said political elements could be behind this protest as stopping a trailer was a crime and not a solution to the issue.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2021