Four booked for illegally storing pesticides

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 16

The police have booked four persons for allegedly storing pesticides in an unauthorised godown made in a house in Naruana village.

The police arrested one of the accused, who is the owner of the pesticide firm, and produced him before a local court. The police have got his remand for interrogation in the matter.

According to the police, the firm had taken permission to store pesticides in a godown at Bhagu road but apart from this godown they had also stored pesticides in a house at Naruana village.

The police said the accused had taken some part of the house on rent some years ago but later started using it for storing pesticides.

The accused have been identified as Ranjan Sharma, N Chandran, V Srinivasan and Ramsaami, all residents of Bathinda city.

Investigating officer from the Sadar police station, Paramjit Singh, said, “The firm had stored pesticides inside a house at Naruana village, which is clear violation of pesticides storage norms. Upon checking, we also found that the owner did not possess the licence for dozens of other pesticide and fertilizer brands, except for two products. We have arrested the owner of the pesticide firm and booked three other accused in the case. We will interrogate the accused to establish further links in the case.”

“The owner of the firm had only taken permission to store pesticides at his godown located at Bhagu road, but for past some time, he had been storing these at a house in Naruana village,” he added.

Notably, owners of pesticide firms are required to take approval from the Agriculture Department for godown location for storing the product.