Telangana High Court on Monday said the officials of the Agriculture Department should not sleep over vital issues like spurious seeds, and must be vigilant.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy, hearing a PIL petition on sale of spurious chilli seeds in Mulugu district, expressed dissatisfaction over the function of agriculture officers. The government should be proactive and prevent farmers from falling a prey to companies selling spurious seeds.
Special government pleader Sanjeev Kumar told the bench that legal action against spurious seed sellers would commence soon after receiving laboratory reports. Despite cancellation of licenses of spurious seed sellers, the problem was likely to continue, the bench felt.
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“This is an issue of grave importance because it directly deals with lives of our farmers,” the bench said. The CJ wanted to know how many raids were conducted against companies indulging in sale of spurious seeds and how many cases were slapped against them. The matter was posted to August 6 for next hearing.
COVID issues
Several issues, including alleged excessive charging by private hospitals, relating to tackling of COVID-19 by the State and Central governments would be heard by Telangana High Court on Tuesday.
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On Monday, the bench headed by the Chief Justice said that it would hear pleas relating to alleged exploitation of coronavirus affected patients by private hospitals on Tuesday. Already the bench on July 20, summoned Chief Secretary along with other top officers of the State government to appear before it.
Along with the Chief Secretary, principal secretaries of Medical and Health and Municipal Administration, Public Health Director, Director of Medical Education and GHMC Commissioner were instructed to be present for the hearing on Monday.