Special teams to combat locusts attack

MULTAN: The Punjab government has constituted special teams to combat locusts’ attack on crops.

Agriculture Secretary Wasif Khurshid stated this in a meeting with officers, including Bahawalpur Commissioner Nayar Iqbal, on Thursday.

The secretary said the department’s experts were monitoring the movement of locusts in Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions and steps were taken to procure locust control pesticides.

The secretary said the Federal Plant Protection Department would provide aircraft to Punjab for pesticide sprays on locusts. He also held a meeting with officials and experts and reviewed steps for the protection of cotton crop.

The secretary asked pest officials to impart training to growers on pest scouting. On the occasion, Punjab Pest Control and Quality Director General Syed Zafaryab Haider stressed the need of launching a crackdown on manufacturers and sellers of fake pesticide and fertiliser in the market.

The secretary said the government had introduced numbers of schemes for the promotion of organic farming and the department was making efforts to train farmers in this regard. The commissioner briefed the secretary on locusts’ attack.

filtration plants face power cut: Some 65 water filtration plants were shutdown due to non-payment of electricity bills here in district.

Addressing a meeting, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Aamir Khatak directed officials to clear outstanding dues as soon as possible for making the plants functional.

He said the plants installed by public health engineering should be handed over to committees of local people so that they themselves would take care of these plants.