The officials of the department of agriculture extension (DAE) with the assistance of administration have started conducting drives against illegal hoarding of chemical fertilizers and seizing the same from various parts of the district when the transplanting Aman (T Aman) farmers have been facing the “artificial crisis” of the fertilizers for last few months. Jhenaidah Sadar upazila has been playing role to conduct the drives in which they have been seizing huge quantity of urea, dye ammonium phosphate (DAP), triple super phosphate (TSP) fertilizers. The farmers have become hostages to the fertilizer dealers and retailers, they said.
Jhenaidah Sadar upazila agriculture officer (UAO) Jahedul Karim said acting on a top off, they had conducted drives at Hatgopalpur Bazer under Jhenaidah sadar upazila on Thursday morning.
The mobile court led by assistant commissioner (land) also executive magistrate Sharmin Akter Sumi had found Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) dealer and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) sub dealer Krishna Gopal Dutt was hoarding about 800 sachets of DAP in a store meant for storage of rice and fodder. The court fined Taka one lakh for his alleged hoarding of
fertilizer.
The court in separate drive had seized 454 sachets of fertilizer from two stores owned by Qamrul Islam Joarder and fined Taka 20 thousand. Later the seized fertilizers were distributed among the sub dealers in the locality.
UAO Jahedul Karim said some of the dishonest fertilizer traders taking the advantages of “artificial crisis” of fertilizer created by themselves have been realizing additional money from the farmers although the government had warned against them time and again.
They will continue the drive and bring all of the culprits under legal steps so that they could not create panic anymore among the farmers.