Illegal fertilizer, pesticide packaging unit busted in Faridkot

Bathinda: In a crackdown on spurious agricultural inputs, the Punjab agriculture and farmers welfare department has raided a residential property in Faridkot and unearthed an illegal fertiliser and pesticide packaging unit operating without any licence or permission. An FIR has been registered at Faridkot city police station against Rajinder Sethi, owner of the said property where allegedly illegal and expired agri-inputs were recovered.Punjab agriculture and farmers' welfare minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, "Acting on reliable inputs, a team of the agriculture department conducted a raid at a house in Narain Nagar locality of Faridkot, in the presence of local police. The owner of the premises has been identified as Rajinder Sethi, who was running a fertiliser and pesticide packaging unit. He was reportedly sourcing agriculture inputs from a company in Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh, which is now under department scanner."Further investigations revealed that Sethi's retail fertiliser licence for Faridkot district had expired, yet commercial activity was being carried out in violation of the Fertiliser Control Order, 1985, Khudian said.The minister added, "The agriculture department team collected 18 fertiliser samples from the premises for testing. Additionally, two batches of expired fertiliser and eight of expired pesticides were found at the site. However, formal samples of the expired stock were not drawn as the products were visibly degraded, unusable and in clear violation of shelf-life norms."The team also discovered that Sethi was operating a packaging unit from his residence without any statutory approval or licence. During the raid, unmarked and open bags containing suspected spurious fertiliser were recovered, along with sewing and sealing equipment used for repackaging.As per a complaint by the agriculture department team, the Faridkot police have registered an FIR against Rajinder Sethi under the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO), 1985; the Essential Commodities (EC) Act, 1955; the Insecticides Act, 1968; and the Insecticides Rules, 1971.Urging farmers across the state to report any suspicious fertiliser or pesticide outlets to the department, Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, "This is a clear case of criminal negligence and deliberate cheating with the farmers. Operating an illegal packaging unit from a residential area, storing expired pesticides and running the business without a valid licence is unforgivable. The government will investigate the entire supply chain, including the Himachal Pradesh-based firm. No one involved in selling spurious or expired agri-inputs to Punjab's farmers will be spared."