MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS (SHRI SRIKANT KUMAR JENA)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the table of the House.
Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of the Lok Sabha Starred
Question No. 598 to be answered on 06.05.2010.
(a) to (e) Fertilizers have been declared as essential commodities under the
Essential Commodities Act, (ECA) 1955. In order to ensure adequate availability of
good quality of fertilizers at reasonable price to the farmers, the Government of India
under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act has promulgated the Fertilizer
(Control) Order, (FCO) 1985. FCO empowers the Government to regulate the price;
distribution and quality of fertilizers. Under clause 19 of FCO sale/manufacture of such
fertilizers which are not of prescribed standard is strictly prohibited. Under clause 8 of
FCO, it is mandatory to obtain the Authorization Letter from the notified Authority for
sale of fertilizers.
No case of large scale manufacture/ sale or distribution of sub-standard
fertilizers has been brought to the notice of the Government of India.
The State Governments are adequately empowered to take appropriate action
against the sale of non-standard fertilizers. Violation of provisions of FCO can invite
penal action, including prosecution of offenders. The offender who is convicted may be
awarded the sentence upto seven years` imprisonment under ECA, besides
cancellation of authorization certificate. There are 71 fertilizer testing laboratories
including four laboratories of the Government of Indian at Faridabad, Kalyani, Mumbai
and Chennai with an annual analyzing capacity of 1.32 lakh samples. During the year
2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, the percentages of samples of fertilizers declared
non-standard at all India level were 6.0%, 6.2% and 5.5% respectively. Information
available on follow up action taken in 2008-09 with regard to non standard samples of
fertilizers state-wise is annexed. Moreover state governments have been sensitized
from time to time on the issue of sales, manufacture, distribution and quality of
fertilizers conforming to FCO standards.