Bhopal: The farmers, who stood in a queue at night to get tokens in morning, manhandled sub-divisional officer (SDO) agriculture in Ashoknagar over shortage of urea fertiliser on Monday. Farmers alleged that there was shortage of tokens needed for procurement of urea. The police said that all farmers were distributed tokens but they tried to get more tokens to procure more fertiliser.
According to information, district administration had issued guideline for fertiliser distribution from shops. Tokens will be distributed from government godown for fertilisers. Token shortage irked farmers who manhandled SDO Mukesh Raghuvanshi. Immediately, police rushed to his rescue.
For last four days, farmers have been protesting against shortage of fertilisers as they blocked roads. But on Monday, farmers lost cool. When SDO Mukesh Raghuvanshi tried to pacify them, they thrashed them.
Additional Superintendent of Police Pradeep Patel told Free Press that as per instructions of district administration, farmers were distributed token for urea and they were told to go to notified shops for purchasing it. But they did not move and tried to get more tokens to procure more fertiliser.