News Analysis India

Tag: Urea

  • Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot writes to PM Narendra Modi regarding ‘inadequate’ supply of urea

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide adequate urea fertilizer to the farmers in the state on time. Gehlot wrote a letter to the PM to draw his attention towards the inadequate supply of urea to the state against the sanctioned allocation, according to a release.

    Earlier, Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya had also written a letter to the Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and urged him to increase the supply of urea, the official statement said. Apart from this, Principal Secretary- Agriculture and Commissioner-Agriculture have also met the ministry officials to apprise them of the difficulties being faced by the farmers due to the shortage.

    During the Rabi season, 90 to 95 lakh hectare area is normally sown in the state for which 13.50 lakh metric ton of fertilizer is required. This time, sowing area is estimated to be 1 crore hectare and the demand of urea in the state is expected to increase to 14.50 lakh metric ton.

    To meet this requirement, 8 lakh metric ton of urea was approved by the Government of India in the months of October and November but only 5.52 lakh metric ton of it was supplied, the release said.

  • Rae Bareli rail coach factory was underutilised before 2014: PM Modi

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said earlier governments did not make the most of India’s potential and cited the rail coach factory in Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency as an example.

    Asserting that “positive mindset and approach are needed to change things,” he laid stress on realising “our full potential to ensure development of the nation”.The Prime Minister was speaking at the centennial foundation day of Lucknow University via video link on Wednesday.

    “For long, it has been a problem that we have not utilised our potential to the full. In the past, it was also true for the governance of our country. We have tried to change this after coming to power,” he said.

    “The rail coach factory in Rae Bareli is an example of how we can change things by changing our outlook. The factory was set up many years ago and had all the machinery to make train coaches, yet only denting-painting (maintenance) was done there. Tall promises were made for the factory, but nothing changed. When we came to power in 2014, we looked into the affairs and, within six months, the factory started making rail coaches. It is now one of the biggest coach manufacturers in the country,” he said.The PM also cited urea production in the country to underline his point.

    “I was surprised to know that despite having sufficient urea plants, the country was importing urea only because our plants were not working to their full potential. The previous governments had not done much to change this. When we came to power, we made changes, and now the country has become self-reliant in urea,” he said.

    Will power and good intentions were equally important as capabilities, he said.He also spoke about his experience of popularising khadi with the help of students in Gujarat through a fashion show at Porbandar on Gandhi Jayanti in 2002.This made khadi “fashionable”, he said, adding that the quantity of khadi sold in the last six years was more than that sold in 20 years before 2014.