LAHORE : March ,6,2023: As strike of the fertilizer dealers enters in the second week All Pakistan Fertilizer Dealers Association (APFDA) is meeting with the Chief Secretary Punjab and his team today to present its demands to end the strike to resume sale of urea and other fertilizers in the province.
The fertilizer dealers are on strike since February 23 against harassment and blackmailing of the authorities of the Punjab Agriculture Department (Extension) and they are demanding a conducive environment to carry out their businesses of sale of fertilizers in the Punjab.
The Punjab Agriculture Department (Extension) has appointed supervisors at the urea sale points across the province who promoted a ‘parchi” culture to black market the fertilizer and make money.
APFDA claims it reported the cases of black marketing of urea done by the supervisors appointed by the Punjab Agriculture Department (Extension), but the higher authorities simply ignored these reports.
Seeing no end to harassment and blackmailing of the supervisors , APFDA gave a call for strike in the Punjab on February 23.
There is no sale of urea and other fertilizers in the Punjab for the last 11 days and the farmers are desperate to see an end to the strike to buy urea to use for their crops.
APFDA had a preliminary meeting with the Chief Secretary Punjab last week in which the issue was discussed in depth and it was decided to have another meeting in a few days and find an amicable solution to the problems being faced by the fertilizer dealers including end to the supervisory sale in the Punjab.
APFDA pattern- in -chief, Mr Ghulam Ahmad told NEWSMAN that the representatives of the fertilizer dealers are scheduled to meet the Chief Secretary Punjab in Lahore today (Monday) to present their case. He hoped that today’s meeting with Chief Secretary Punjab will bring good news for all stakeholders including the fertilizer dealers and farmers . Mr Ghulam Ahmad said ” We want a fair environment to carry out sale of fertilizers to meet the requirement of the farmers to help them use urea and other fertilizers in time and increase agriculture produce output to meet local demand and I think senior authorities will appreciate our point of view and remove hurdles that forced us to go for the strike”.