Farmers Demand Justice: Legal Notice Sent to Company Over Poor-Quality Herbicide & Weedicide

Two farmers have sent a legal notice to Agriculture Department officials seeking action against a private firm for allegedly manufacturing poor-quality herbicide, weedicide, and biofertilizer.

In March, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department suspended the license of the private firm for a period of six months manufacturing insecticides for not taking relevant prescribed measures for not maintaining records, preventing pollution, and manufacturing without expert staff.

Last month, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department suspended the license of the same firm manufacturing insecticides for six months for not adopting relevant prescribed measures for not maintaining records, preventing pollution, and manufacturing without expert staff.

Amit Kumar Jain, advocate in Punjab and Haryana High Court has sent the notice to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Director of the department, Ambala Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Director (Agriculture), on behalf of the local farmers Dharam Singh and Jasbir Singh.

According to the notice, last year in November the farmers had purchased weedicide from the firm but it failed to assess the growth of weeds and the bio fertilizer also failed to give promising results.

He also said, “I have sent a notice as per the instructions of my clients. The firm has also been asked to take the needful steps to compensate the farmers for their losses within a period of 15 days of receiving the legal notice or else they will move to High Court.”

Meanwhile, Dr Jasvinder Singh, Deputy Director (Agriculture), Ambala said, “A legal notice has been received, but we are yet to receive any information about the farmers. We have sought the bills of the weedicide and bio fertilizer purchased by the farmers and other information from the advocate. Furthermore, action will be taken accordingly.”