Raid on, more spurious pesticides recovered

Moga, April 16

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The state government today banned the sale of pesticides and insecticides manufactured by Saraswati Agro Chemicals India Private Limited at Dera Bassi in Mohali and seized many unauthorised and expired products worth crores of rupees.

Dr Suttantar Kumar Aeri, Director, Agriculture, said raids on the company continued for the second day today. An 11-member team of the department swooped on the premises of this company on Monday to collect the samples of pesticides being manufactured by it and also check all records related to pesticides being manufactured for Bayer Crop Science Limited.

He said the department had seized a huge stock of “Fame”, a pesticide manufactured by Saraswati Agro Chemicals and marketed by Bayer Crop Science Limited, which was expired as per the labels mentioned on the pesticide bottles.

Another product “Ambition”, a growth regulator imported by Bayer Crop Science Limited, has also been found on the premises of the Saraswati company. The government does not allow the sale of this product in the state, therefore, it was seized by the department, Aeri said.

A spokesperson for Bayer Crop Science Limited in a statement emailed to The Tribune said, “...As per our internal process, any Bayer product approaching its expiry date is moved from market to a central warehouse from where it is sent for incineration. With reference to the stocks of ‘Ambition’, these were stored at the Dera Bassi warehouse for transport to HP and Rajasthan where we have the licence to market the product.” — TNS

Expired stock

• Huge stock of ‘Fame’, a pesticide, that was expired as per the labels mentioned on the pesticide bottles was seized
• The exact details of the quantity were yet to be ascertained, but according to an estimate, the total cost may run into crores of rupees
• Another product ‘Ambition’, a growth regulator banned in Punjab, was also found and seized on the premises of the Saraswati company