Punjab Agri Dept raids shops selling fake pesticides, agri-inputs

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], Aug 18 (ANI): Punjab's Agriculture Department has raided several shops and godowns where fake pesticides and agricultural inputs were manufactured and seized a huge amount of illegal substances.
"The state-wide raids have been conducted on 410 shops and subsequently 207 samples have been drawn from various pesticides and fertilizers and further sent for examination," said KS Pannu, Secretary, Agriculture Department.
"Consequently, out of the results received so far, five samples found misbranded. FIR has been registered in one case and another a complaint has been filed with the Police for appropriate action in this regard besides seizure of stock at four places," he added.
He further said that the checking of pesticide shops would continue till the massive drive against unscrupulous dealers reaches its logical end as the sole aim of this move was to prevent them from selling or supplying spurious pesticides in the State.
He also said that several flying squads have been pressed into service for inter-district checking. Three teams have already been assigned their duties to inspect railway stations in Mansa district, suspected to be transporting spurious pesticides from neighbouring states.
Huge quantity of illegal pesticides and other agri-products have been seized from the two unauthorised godowns at Nangal in Ropar district and 25 unauthorisd pesticides have been seized from another shop in the area, said Pannu.
Out of these godowns, 76 samples of pesticides and 11 of fertilizers have been recovered and sent for analysis.
The presence of duplicate coragen pesticide was found in a sample of bio liquid pest controller which was sent for the analysis.
The raids were also conducted at the Guru Harsahai area in Ferozepur district and three samples were sent for test. One sample found misbranded having 2.5 per cent against 10 per cent of an active ingredient. The store was seized and a complaint was lodged against the concerned person.
The police also caught a supplier with 10 quintals of pesticide at Malerkotla in Sangrur district where a sample of cartap hydrochloride was taken and found misbranded as they had zero percentage against 4 per cent.
Similarly, 15 unauthorised and eight expired pesticides were recovered a local store located at Harike in Tarn Taran district. Nine litres of banned pesticide glyphosate has also been seized in Bathinda District, said the official.
An FIR has been registered against all the dealers. Further investigation is underway. (ANI)