Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran on Saturday directed department officials to submit within three days a report on the pesticides kept for sale at the 194 pesticide outlets in the district.
At a meeting with the officials at the mini civil station in Thodupuzha, the Minister sought details of the labels and the contains of the residue in the pesticide bottles.
Demanding strict inspection at the check-posts, he said cases should be registered if banned pesticides like Endosulfan were being transported to the State.
Awareness campaigns should be launched among estate workers who arrived from Tamil Nadu to work in the cardamom estates regarding the ill effects of the banned pesticide.
“It is only through a campaign among the workers that the use of the banned pesticide can be countered,” Mr. Ratnakaran said and added that there were many porous routes used by cardamom smugglers to transport the banned pesticide. Only through a campaign could the estate workers be prevented from being used as carriers of the banned pesticide.
Mr. Ratnakaran said the State-owned agriculture farms should ensure that it did not use red or yellow labelled pesticides and boards highlighting it should be prominently displayed at the farms.
He called for a public awareness campaign to prevent the use of Endosulfan.
