Sale of poor quality seeds to be non-bailable offence now

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday passed six Bills, including a legislation making sale of spurious seeds a non-bailable offence.

The legislations will now be sent to the Governor for approval, a necessary step before their implementation.

Under the Seeds (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2025, the first offence by a company will attract a punishment of one to two years and fine ranging from Rs 5 to 10 lakh.

A repeated offence will attract punishment of two to three years and fine of Rs 10 to 50 lakh. A similar misdeed by a dealer or any other person will attract a punishment of six months to one year and a fine of Rs 1-5 lakh for first offence and a term of one to two years and fine of Rs 5 to 10 lakh for a repeated offence.

Earlier, the fine was Rs 500 for the first offence and Rs 1,000, along with a jail term of up to six months, for the repeated offence. After the legislation was introduced in the House by Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh termed the Bill as half-hearted approach.

He said the state seed certification agency should be empowered for proper certification of seeds so that farmers were not cheated.

Congress legislator Pargat Singh, while supporting stricter penalties for seed fraud, criticised the lack of mechanisms to support farmers, a weakened PAU research capacity and dilution of punishments for water pollution into mere fines.

Aimed at generating revenue from the disposal of properties worth crores of in 23 improvement trusts, the House approved the Punjab Town Improvement (Amendment) Bill, 2025. It would enable the government to utilise financial resources for infrastructural upgrade in 167 civic bodies of the state.

Through the amendment, the government will be able to transfer funds from the improvement trusts to the Municipal Development Fund, enabling the government to utilize the funds in any of the civic bodies.

Earlier, the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, restricted the use of the improvement trust funds outside its jurisdiction. Accusing the state government to drain out resources of the civic bodies, Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said it was diverting financial resources of improvement trusts for other works.

Other bills passed

Punjab Apartment & Property Regulation (Amendment) Bill

The Punjab Right to Business (Amendment) Bill

Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill

The Punjab Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill