Agri Commission Urges CM to Ban Paraquat
The Chief Minister assured the commission that the government would take up the matter and hold a discussion on it and take appropriate steps.
Hyderabad:The Telangana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission on Monday submitted a petition to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy urging him to ensure a discussion is held in the Assembly during the Budget Session on banning paraquat, the highly toxic herbicide, in Telangana.
Commission chairman and senior Congress leader M. Kodanda Reddy, along with Commission members Ramulu Nayak, K.V.N. Reddy, Ch Venkanna, and Bhavani Reddy, also submitted similar petitions to Speaker G. Prasad Kumar, agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, and legislative affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu on Monday.
The Chief Minister assured the commission that the government would take up the matter and hold a discussion on it and take appropriate steps.
In the petition, the commission said paraquat was banned in more than 70 countries but was being sold in India. A large number of farmers, under various pressures and seeking to take their lives, were consuming the chemical and losing their lives, and that even the Indian Medical Association has urged a ban on Paraquat, the Commission said.