Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked the Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders in Maharashtra to now thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the fertilizer subsidy. The central government will bear an additional burden of Rs 14,775 crore, which comes to 140%, for which the leaders should now thank the PM, party state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said on Thursday.
“The decision of the fertilizer companies to increase the prices was the fallout of the price rise in phosphoric acid and ammonia in the international market. Now, farmers will be getting the fertilizers at the price that existed last year. This is a major relief to farmers and the union government had spelled this out on May 15 in a press release”, Patil said.
Without offering some time for the central government to decide, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spoke about the agitating. Now, they should thank the Narendra Modi government for the relief, Patil demanded. He also blamed the UPA government and particularly ex-PM Dr Manmohan Singh and then Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for the issue. “Their decision to implement nutrient-based subsidy policy led to price hike and profit to private companies,” the state BJP chief said. Even the parliamentary standing committee of the fertilizers and chemicals department had expressed grave concern about private companies making huge profits in its 2019-20 report, he said.