SAHIWAL, Sept 22: Agriculture department officials have allowed fertiliser dealers to sell 50 kilogramme urea bag at the rate of Rs800 in open market instead of Rs635 fixed by the government.

Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, the president of Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran, told Dawn that urea was being sold at Rs900 to Rs950 per 50kg bag in black market.

To counter this, agriculture officials came up with a hazy solution. “They have allowed fertiliser dealers to sell urea at the rate of Rs800 per 50kg bag and this is indeed legalising black-marketing,” Ali said.

He said in the last two months, around 15 cases were registered by the agriculture department against urea dealers but all in far-flung areas. “Not even a single urea dealer has been fined by the department in Sahiwal city.”

He said the solution devised by the local agriculture officials was in sheer violation of the directives issued by the Punjab chief secretary. “No one can individually change the official rate calculation mechanism,” he added.

Talking to Dawn, Agriculture Deputy Director Chaudhry Abdul Qadoos confirmed that urea dealers had been allowed to sell a 50kg bag at the rate of Rs800.