Agri-director’s order on pesticides illegal: Khaira
Thursday, 17/09/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Chandigarh : Former MLA Sukhpal Khaira today alleged that Director Agriculture in an illegitimate order placed a direct order with the M/s Bayer Crop Science Ltd to supply 92,000 litres of Oberon pesticide worth Rs 33 crore to eight districts of Malwa.
In a press conference at Chandigarh, Khaira said the order was placed without any competitive transparent bidding or tendering.
Though PAU-recommended pesticides -- Spiromesifen, Polo and Trisophas (Markfed) -- were available at less than Rs 3,000 per litre in the market, the chief agriculture officers of the eight districts of Malwa were forced to purchase the substandard pesticide for Rs 3,550 per litre.
Joint meet
The whitefly menace is getting bigger by the day. This has led to joint cooperation between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to find ways to deal with the menace. A meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the three states is being held here tomorrow, confirmed Punjab Agriculture Minister Tota Singh.
Tota Singh's claim
Punjab Agriculture Minister Tota Singh said that a bio-cure to deal with whitefly is red beetle that the farmers refer to as mitr-makhi (friendly beetle). The beetle eats up the whitefly and does not harm the cotton crop. "But the incessant use of pesticides on the cotton crop is killing the beetles too," Tota Singh said.
