Gwalior

Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Anant Kumar today said fertiliser production would touch 245 lakh mt this fiscal as against 225 lakh mt last year.

“About half-a-dozen closed fertiliser plants are made functional and are going for production soon. First of them would be Gorakhpur plant of Uttar Pradesh which would start production in 2-3 days,” Kumar told reporters here.

The Minister asserted that there will be no shortage of urea this year and ruled out any scope for black marketing.

To a query, he said there will be no stoppage of subsidy to farmers as “it is necessary for strengthening the agriculture sector”.

“We will continue to give subsidy on fertilisers,” Kumar added.

To another question, he said the Madhya Pradesh government had already purchased 2 lakh tonnes of urea in advance for farmers.

He pegged the country’s fertiliser requirement at 320 lakh mt.

“We import about 80 lakh mt every year, which would be not required after restart of closed fertiliser plants,” the minister added.

Jan Aushadhi Centres

Plans are also afoot to soon set up Jan Aushadhi Centres at and around bus stands and railway stations.

At present, 400 drugs are being sold at cheap rates in the market and the ministry has decided to add 468 more drugs to that list.

Kumar said the Centre will introduce ‘Khanij Kalyan Yojna’ in mining areas of the country.

According to him, a part of the royalty of the mineral extracted from area will be used for the welfare of people in areas such as education, health and water, among others.

PTI