For whitefly attack on cotton, Khaira blames ‘corrupt’ agriculture director

Thursday, 17/09/2015

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CHANDIGARH: For the destruction of cotton crop in whitefly’s attack, Congress spokesman Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday blamed director of agriculture Mangal Singh Sandhu, whom he accused of ordering inferior-grade Oberon pesticide worth `33 crore without competitive tendering for corrupt gains.

The whitefly menace has forced farmers of the Malwa region to plough more than 50% of their cotton fields, Khaira has claimed, adding: “Crop sown on more than 2.5 lakh hectares of the total cotton area of 5 lakh hectares stands destroyed — a loss worth thousands of crores of rupees.” He said records proved how direct order in contravention of rules was placed with Bayer Crop Science for the supply of 92,000-litre Oberon pesticide to eight districts of the Malwa belt when Punjab Agricultural University had recommended cheaper solutions.

“The PAU-recommended pesticides — Spiromesifen, Polo and Trisophas (Markfed) — were available for less than `3,000 per litres but the chief agriculture officers of the eight Malwa districts were forced to purchase substandard Oberon for `3,550 per litre, on the illegitimate order of the director of Agriculture, which smacks of favoritism and utter disregard for transparency,” said Khaira.

He said the director would not have the courage to place an order as large as this unless he had the patronage of agriculture minister Tota Singh. “The fact that the minister is also corrupt stands corroborated by the recovery of `40 lakh cash in Baghapurana recently from the officers of a pesticide company, who were released on the orders of Tota Singh,” alleged Khaira.

The director, who belongs to Pakki village of Lambi constituency, is a close relative of Dyal Singh Koliyanwali, a confidant of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, which indicates a nexus between the CM, agriculture minister and the director, the Congress leader claimed, adding that the Congress wanted a judicial inquiry into the order placed with the private company. He also demanded a compensation of `25,000 per acre at least for the affected farmers.

‘THERE WAS NO SCOPE OF CALLING TENDERS’
Director of agriculture Mangal Singh Sandhu was unavailable for comment but, speaking on the issue, joint director BS Sohal said since the pesticide formula required to fight whitefly was with only one company, there was no scope of calling tenders. He denied any corruption in the purchase.