The hoarders in the districts are selling urea at higher prices taking advantage of the situation.

The dealers last week stopped lifting urea in accordance with a decision taken at a meeting held at Bangladesh Fertiliser Dealers Association.

The meeting protested the government decision for upazila-wise allocation of urea, effective this month, in place of earlier system of zila-wise allocation.

Our correspondent in Brahmanbaria reports, the dealers association in the district has threatened to go for tougher agitation if the authority does not cancel upazila-wise allocation system of urea.

The association held protest meetings at their Ashuganj office Monday and yesterday to press for earlier system of district-wise allocation.

Presided by Md Jahangir, the meeting was addressed by Haji Md Rafiqul Islam, Md Mijanur Rahman, Md Jakir Hossain, Md Humayun Kabir, Md Rafiqul Islam, Md Naser Ahmed and Md Selim.

The meeting criticised the Agricultural Ministry order to Ashuganj Zia Fertilizer Company Limited (ZFCL) and other fertiliser factories to distribute urea under upazila-wise allocation system, saying it will affect the dealers as all of them will not get equal quantity of fertiliser.

As a result, many will have to count huge loss. Some dealers will draw maximum quantity of urea while others will get little, they observed.

Some influential groups will be benefitted by the system, the dealers said in the meeting. They expressed the fear that this will create a group of puppets of ruling party leaders and officials.

There are 675 dealers under ZFCL who lift urea for six districts Brahmanbaria, Comilla, Chand-pur, Kishoreganj, Netrakona and Suanmganj.

The dealers of ZFCL have not yet deposited money to lift their fertiliser allocated for the month of September.

As the dealers are not lifting urea from ZFCL, some retailers have started selling urea in their shops at high rate, farmers alleged.

Our Correspondent in Nilphamari adds: The farmers are facing an acute crisis of urea following stoppage of lifting of urea by dealers.

Taking advantage of the situation, a section of unscrupulous traders are selling hoarded urea at an exorbitant rate. At present, a 40 kg bag of urea is being sold at between Tk 320-300 against the official rate of Tk 265 per bag.

Earlier, Nilphamari dealers association president Abdul Wahed lodged a protest with the Deputy Commissioner (DC).

In his protest letter, he said the government is committed to allot urea to all the 74 dealers in the district equally as per decision of a meeting of the district fertiliser and seeds monitoring committee held on July 12 this year. He blamed the authorities for violating the decision.

According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) here, the government allotted 17 metric tons (MT) of urea to each dealer in Saidpur upazila in September while it was 50 MT in Kishoreganj and Jaldhaka upazilas, 51 MT in Sadar upazila and 54 MT in Domar and Dimla upazilas.

Our Patuakhali Correspondent adds: Farmers are facing crisis of urea fertiliser as all 62 dealers did not lift fertiliser from godowns in Chittagong protesting new allocation system.

Dealers alleged each of them in seven upazilas in the district was given each up to 6 tons of urea per month which proved inadequate. But the agriculture ministry introduced a new rule in July this year. According to it, fertiliser would be distributed in the upazila as per land ratio.

Meanwhile, crisis of fertiliser in the peak Aman season in the district has pushed up prices. In the beginning of the season it was sold at between Tk 8 to 10 per kilogram in place of the government rate of Tk 5.80. But for the last two months farmers could not buy fertiliser from the local markets as all fertiliser shops were found empty.

Abdul Hanif, a farmer of Auliapur village under sadar upazila said, 'I went to Patuakhali to buy urea but in vain as there is no fertiliser in the local market.'