Coordinated efforts needed to safeguard the farmers interests: Director Law Enforcement

Srinagar: The Director Law Enforcement J&K, Bal Krishan Chandan Monday called for zero tolerance against spurious/substandard pesticides and fertilizers besides strict implementation of established procedures of law enforcement so that the farming community could be served in a real spirit.
The Director said this while chairing a meeting at Directorate of Agriculture Lalmandi, here.
He said that to uphold the quality of pesticides and fertilizers, all the trending modern day scientific practices should be followed so that the customers could get best quality inputs for the cost they pay.
He impressed upon the participants that coordinated efforts are needed to maintain and ensure the availability of good quality fertilizers and pesticides to the farming community.
Earlier, Deputy Director Law Enforcement Kashmir Mohammad Younis Chowdhary briefed the Director about the various activities and achievements by the Enforcement Agency during the recent times.
He said 2055 samples of different pesticides and 675 samples of fertilizers have been taken by the enforcement agency from different pesticide and fertilizer outlets during its visits to different districts, out of which 38 pesticide samples were found substandard and the legal proceedings have been initiated against the violators.
He added that Rs 85,000 fine has also been recovered from the erring pesticide and fertilizer dealers.
The meeting was informed that 68 lac liters of Horticulture Mineral Oil (HMO) have been distributed in Kashmir valley so far and 11 MT substandard materials has been seized by the Agency from different areas of the Kashmir valley. It was said that sufficient quantities of fertilizers are available and there is no shortage of any kind of fertilizers in the valley.
The meeting was attended by Joint Director Seeds, Pesticides and Fertilizers Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Assistant Director Law Enforcement Sheikh Imran, District Law Enforcement Officers of all the concerned districts of Kashmir Division.