A Union government-controlled laboratory report has said that contents in the samples of three new brands of liquid solutions available in the market to control ‘kole roga’ (fruit rot disease) in arecanut do not have “traces of any insecticides or pesticides”, according to two senior officials of the State government.
Revealing this at the council meeting of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat here on Monday H. Kempe Gowda, Joint Director, Agriculture and Yogesh H R, Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture, said the Central Insecticides Laboratory, Faridabad, has given the report. The Department of Agriculture had sent the samples for testing as they were being marketed as organic products to control the ‘kole roga’.
Mr. Gowda said the samples were tested for 111 chemical formulations.
When the panchayat members demanded that the sale should be banned, as those brands have failed to control ‘kole roga’ as promised by their manufacturers, the two officials and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the panchayat Thulasi Maddineni said there is no legal provision for it. They said that as they were being marketed as organic products, they did not come under the Fertilisers and Chemicals Act.
The CEO said the officials were not in a position to issue notices to their manufacturers. But the members who did not agree with the officials said that the officials had not explored the provisions of law under which the sale could be banned.
They demanded that at least the sale in cooperative societies and other government-controlled fertiliser distribution centres should be stopped.
Mr. Gowda said that he would issue necessary instructions to this effect. The members said that when the report has said that it did not have “traces of any insecticides or pesticides” how they could control the disease.
