Selja flays BJP over Pesticide Management Bill

Launching a fresh round of attack on the BJP government at the Centre and the state, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee(HPCC) president Selja on Sunday said a proposed legislation on pesticide management would add to the miseries of farmers, who were already faced by the threats of three ordinances passed by Centre.

“BJP government has committed itself to act against interests of farmers,” said Selja”, after meeting party leaders in NCR. She accused BJP of making policies detrimental to the interests of farmers and in favour of a handful of private companies. “The government has already passed three ordinances to deprive farmers of their natural rights. Now, it is planning to present Pesticide Management Bill, but it would ruin farmers and small businessmen," she said. 

Selja said the bill promoted imports, which would raise the cost of pesticides. “The government is just showing fase dreams to

farmers, of their income doubling by 2022, but it is just making policies which would adversely affect their income,” she siad.

Selja said apart from the financial impact on farmers, the bill would promote “inspector raj”. The bill proposes re-registration of

companies under the new legislation, even tough they had been registered under the Insecticides Act, 1968. 

The registration committee in the bill has been empowered to reject any of the applications of the pesticides manufacturing companies seeking registration in the new bill. This would not only increase corruption, but lead to small Indian manufactures of pesticides not getting an advantage, she said. “This would also lead to delay in availability of pesticides to farmers at the time of need. Also, no provision has been made in the bill to help farmers at the time of emergency such as attack of locust,”she said.