Senate body condemns leniency to adulterators

Friday, January 16, 2009

By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: The senate standing committee on food, agriculture and livestock has strongly criticised the judiciary for not giving exemplary punishments to the people involved in the business of spurious pesticides and fertilizer. The senate standing committee on agriculture and food held a meeting at civil secretariat on Thursday to discus the position of pesticides’ and fertilizers’ adulteration and availability of fertilizers to the farmers of Punjab. The members of the meeting were unanimous that the current fertilizers crisis was self-created by some dealers and manufacturers while the government had also taken late decision for fertilizers’ import. The meeting was chaired by Senator Muhammad Amjad Abbas who stressed the need for expediting the prosecution of the cases against the people and companies involved in the adulteration of pesticides and fertilizers. The meeting was attended by senators Shuja-ul-Mulk, Agha Pari Gul, Abbas Komali, Mrs Sameen Saddiqui, Mohabat Khan Mari, Raza Mohammad Raza, Dr Abdul Malik, Punjab Agriculture Minister Ahmed Ali Aulkah, Punjab Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran, Punjab Agriculture Secretary Javeed Awan, Federal Secretary MINFAL Zia-ur-Rehman, DG Agriculture Dr Anjum Ali and other officials concerned. The meeting has issued instruction to the concerned authorities to ensure timely availability of fertilizers to the farmers in cotton and wheat growing areas of the Punjab. On pesticide issue, the chair with the suggestions of the participants has proposed that the services of legal experts at district or thesil levels should be hired. The participants of the meeting were of the view that sale of spurious pesticide was a heinous crime, as it damaged the national economy thrice. The meeting has also grilled the police on not taking action against the influential people involved in the business of fake pesticides and fertilizers. The chair has issued instruction to the police to resolve all the pending cases registered against adulterators. On the fertilizer issue, every participant has given his input. Senator Muhammad Amjad Abbas said the dealers were mainly involved in the shortage. He said the federal government had imported urea late due to financial problem. However, the Punjab government has been doing its best administrative efforts to handle the situation, he added. “Once there is shortage and supply side problem in the system then the overcharging can not be controlled”, he remarked. Senator Muhammad Amjad Abbas also asked why the police and administration were not taking action against the powerful fertilizer dealers who were selling fertilizers more than the officially fixed price of urea fertilizer. The meeting was informed that 1.3 million urea bags needed in D G Khan Division while no urea was available in the division. Similarly, Senator Raza Mohammad Raza, Dr Abdul Malik, representing Balochistan, pointed out that they were also facing urea shortage. They informed that wheat had been sowed in 5000 acre of Merani Dam but now the farmers were looking for urea for their crop. Secretary MINFL Zia-ur-Rehman said the government had allowed the import of some one million tone urea against the shortage of six lakh ton. The total annual urea production of the country is 4.8 million tones while the consumption is 5.4 million tones. However, this year area under wheat cultivation has been substantially increased.

Published in The News Lahore city pages