Amidst reports of selling of companies selling spurious pesticides to the State’s farmers, the Punjab Government on Wednesday constituted a special team to look in to the complaints of cotton farmers regarding alleged supply of spurious pesticides or insecticides.
On the orders of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, State Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini constituted the team under the supervision of Bureau of Investigation director Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota. The team will comprise IGP (Bathinda Zone) BK Bawa, IGP (Intelligence and Counter Intelligence) JK Jain, and IGP (Crime) G Nageshwar Rao.
Only a day before, Sukhbir had maintained that the State Government would take a strict action against the companies selling spurious pesticides to vulnerable farmers and no one would be spared.
The main opposition party, Congress, had hold the pesticide mafia and the Badal Government responsible for the massive damage of cotton crop in Malwa due to whitefly attack. On the other hand, the State Government had blamed the farmers for the damage on the grounds that they have not followed the guidelines issued by the State Agriculture department for using the pesticides.