A man who had climbed the roof of a two-story building tried to jump off today - creating a massive commotion outside the Ghanapuram mandal centre in Telangana's Wanaparthy district. The man was Bikki Chennakeshavulu - a farmer who had come to the building to get his share of urea, which was being distributed by the government after a long time.
The fertilizer has been short in supply and hundreds were seen queueing up near the single window office in the Ghanapuram mandal centre.
But many received only a fraction of the number of bags they sought.
Due to the shortage of urea, each farmer is being given only two bags, not enough even for a small plot of land, after they produced their Aadhaar card.
That was when Bikki Chennakeshavulu, a farmer from Ghanapuram mandal, got upset.
Running to the building terrace, he tried to jump off and got arrested by a police officer stationed there.
Two days ago, a large amount of illegal urea was seized in Peddamandhadi mandal.
The farmers alleged that a lot was happening without the authorities knowing.
Some farmers claimed they had not received even a single bag so far.
Those who had cultivated 10 acres questioned how they would manage to till their fields.
"They are misleading farmers by saying that farmers are like kings and are causing trouble," said one of the farmers who had queued up in the area.
The fields of several states, including Telangana, are suffering from a huge shortage of urea at the peak of the Kharif season. The matter has become a major political row between the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi on the one hand, and the BJP at the Centre on the other.
Official data indicates that the Centre had allocated 9.8 lakh metric tonnes of urea to Telangana for the kharif season this year. Of this, 8.3 LMT was required till August. However, the state has so far received only 5.42 LMT, reports have indicated.
The causes of the shortage include rising demand, disruptions in domestic production and delay in imports.
