Farmers in Pakistan take to streets as perennial crisis widens

Farmers in Pakistan took to the streets on Wednesday and blocked the road over the perennial crisis of unavailability of urea, reported local media.

Hundreds of farmers blocked Narowal-Sialkot Road in Punjab province for traffic on Wednesday and chanted slogans against the government and the district administration over the non-availability of urea and sale of the fertiliser in the black market, reported Dawn.

Traffic at Qila Ahmadabad Chowk was blocked by a large number of farmers as a result passengers travelling from Narowal to Sialkot, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and other cities had to face a great deal of inconvenience.

Many farmers in the country have alleged the crisis emanated after the dealers started selling urea in the black market.

"There is no crisis of urea fertiliser in Narowal district. Farmers are not getting fertiliser at the government rate of PKR 1,765 but when you pay the extra money, you can get as much urea as you want," Dawn quoted Nawaz Malik, a farmer, as saying.

Owing to the 'incompetence' of the district administration, locals Arif Najmi and Atif Sheikh said that urea was being sold to farmers of Qila Ahmadabad Town at Rs3,000 per bag, according to Dawn.

Farmers are being humiliated on the pretext of identity cards and land records, said locals.

Saba Asghar, Narowal Deputy Commissioner, said 700 bags of urea had been given to farmers at government rate in Qila Ahmadabad Town.

( With inputs from ANI )

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