Agri Dept collects samples of pesticides
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service
Moga, April 10
Reacting to the news report “Punjab smells fake pesticide sale scam” published in The Tribune on Tuesday, separate teams of the state agriculture department conducted random inspection of pesticide and fertiliser dealers across the state on Wednesday.
Director of the Agriculture Department Dr Swattantar Kumar Aery said random check was done in Sangrur, Muktsar, Fazilka and a few other districts of the Malwa belt. “The teams collected samples of fertilisers and pesticides, which will be sent to the government laboratory for chemical testing,” he added.
He said the manufacturing units and marketing firms of pesticides and fertilisers would also be checked by the department. “The government will not allow sale of spurious fertilisers and pesticides in the state at any cost,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the state government has so far not checked the Dera Bassi-based Saraswati Agro Chemicals India Private Limited, which manufactures pesticides for Bayer Crop Science Limited. The stocks of Bayer Company had also not been checked so far.
Officials of the Agriculture Department seized a few bottles of “FAME”, a pesticide, marketed by Bayer Company. The laboratory tests had confirmed that the product was spurious in nature.
Moga District Magistrate Sandeep Hans on Wednesday asked the district police to register a case with regard to the pesticide scam. However, the police was yet to register the case till the filing of this news report.
