Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): A video of police in Morena district resorting to lathi-charge on farmers who were standing in queues for availing fertiliser has gone viral on social media.
Morena is the home district of Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh.
The farmers were standing in queues while pushing each other outside a cooperative society in Kailaras town of Morena district on Tuesday afternoon.
According to reports, there was a stampede-like situation outside the cooperative society. The district administration pressed police into action to manage the crowd.
The videos, which have been going viral on social media, show that police are resorting to lathi-charge on farmers and also pulling some farmers out from the queue.
Farmers claimed that they had been running pillar to post to avail fertiliser for the past one week.
Though, Morena district collector could not be contacted for comment, a senior district administration officer said, "There was shortage of fertiliser, but now we have sufficient fertilisers in the district. Cooperative societies and authorised vendors have been assigned the jobs to distribute fertilisers to farmers."
The region- Gwalior Chambal- has reportedly been facing acute shortage of fertiliser. The state government, however, has claimed that there is no shortage of fertiliser. BJP leaders including state Agriculture minister Kamal Patel recently blamed opposition Congress for spreading rumours of fertiliser shortage.
The Congress, however, said that BJP leaders were trying to cover the truth by diverting attention from real issues.
Recently in Sabalgarh Morena, a group of farmers had tried to loot a truck laden with fertiliser. Similarly, a group of farmers looted fertiliser from a cooperative society in Bhind district on Tuesday.
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