Campaign To Test Excessive Pesticides In Vegetables To Begin From June 5

The Government of Assam on Tuesday informed the Gauhati High Court that from June 5 onwards, a state-wide testing campaign will be conducted to determine the excessive use of pesticides in vegetables and other farm produces.

The state government filed an affidavit in the high court informing that it has brought 200 testing kits from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for the purpose of carrying out testing.

The government will file reports at regular intervals during the testing process that will help document the amount of pesticides found in the test samples.

Meanwhile, the court also issued a special direction to the petitioners who had brought the matter to light. The court said that they will be able to file complaints to the police if they come across any new information in the matter.

It may be noted that in April this year, the Gauhati High Court had observed that Assam did not have a system for immediate detection of the presence of pesticides in vegetables and other farm produce.

The high court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) pertaining to the use of pesticides in vegetables that ultimately enters the food cycle when it made the observation.

While entertaining a PIL in the matter, the Gauhati HC had earlier asked the commissioner of food safety and drugs administration in Assam, Abhijit Baruah to be present during the hearing.

In line with the court’s request, the top health and family welfare department official of Assam was present as the court made took the issue up for hearing. Meanwhile, it came to the fore that the Assam government was in talks with BARC to bring in equipments that will help in testing farm produce for presence of pesticides.

This was informed to the Gauhati High Court by the state government. In February this year, the high court had directed the concerned departments to inspect the vegetables before they are imported to Guwahati.

The high court issued a set of guidelines related to use of pesticides in vegetables based on a petition filed by Advocate Seema Bhuyan.

Various departments including agriculture, forensics and health were directed to take adequate measures for inspecting the vegetables that were imported to the city before they entered the market and were sold to citizens.

The Gauhati High Court had asked the departments to submit a detailed report on this by March 3.

Advocate Seema Bhuyan had filed a PIL in the high court stating that the food products like vegetables and crops in the state had excessive contamination of pesticides and heavy materials that are injurious to human health.

The month before, a central taskforce visited Assam's Goalpara for checking the indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemicals and interacted with the Agriculture Development Officers (ADO) of the district.

They had a discussion with the Alliance for Agri Innovation (AAI) and Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) at the District Office's chamber in the District Agriculture Office, Goalpara.

The team visited the pesticide retail dealers in several places including Dhupdhara, Bikali ADO Circle, Tiplai, Rangjuli ADO Circle, Borpathar, Rangjuli ADO Circle, Simlitola Bazar, Matia ADO Circle, Goalpara Town, Agia ADO Circle.

Rajib Kumar Bhuyan, Sr. ADO, Directorate of Agriculture, Khanapara, Assam, Kamal Das, PO Directorate of Agriculture, Khanapara, Assam, Hitesh Bezbaruah, SDAO Dudhnoi, Bandana Patgiri, Sr. ADO Goalpara and Bipul Nath, ADO Rangjuli were present during the visit to various retail dealers of fertilizers.

The team along with the members of the District Agriculture Office Goalpara held an awareness meeting with dealers and retailers of Matia ADO Circle at Simlitola bazaar and discussions included, indiscriminate uses of pesticides and proper documentation for selling pesticides at the local markets. After that team, several areas in the district discussed the usage of Pesticides in their fields with the farmers.

The central and district taskforce jointly checked fertilizer shops for indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemicals and informed them to sell and use pesticides as per Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) norms.

Also Read: No Mechanism To Check Presence Of Pesticides In Farm Produce: Gauhati HC