‘Agriculture dept spent Rs218m to combat locusts’

KARACHI : The agriculture department has spent Rs.218.071 million the purchase of new vehicles, pesticides and spray as well as other expenditures for the locust control operation, athe director general of the department told Sindh High Court.

Filing comments in the SHC with regard to the government efforts being made to combat locust attacks in the province, the official said the government had released Rs335 million for the locust control operation in the current year. He submitted that the agriculture department had spent Rs218.071 million on the purchase of vehicles, pesticides, spray and solo powers as well as on travelling allowance for staff engaged for the campaign.

He said Rs117.024 million would be utilised for the locust control program. He said that field teams had been increased to 98 with 358 manpower and new 21 vehicles had been included in the existing 25 vehicles’ fleet to control desert locusts.

The official said an area of 74,296 square kilometers had been surveyed and 97,283 acres had been sprayed, including 988 acres through aerial spray. The court was informed that the Supreme Court had also issued directions to the federal and provincial governments to make efforts for deal with the issue of locusts.

A high court division bench headed by Justice Omar Sial directed the petitioner counsel to satisfy the court as to whether suo moto proceedings’ relevance to the matter was being proceeded with in the SC and submit a reply by third week of July.

Applicant Syed Mureed Ali Shah had filed a contempt application against the secretary of the ministry of national food security and research, the chief secretary and others for not complying with the court directives to take the best possible measures against the locust attacks in the province.

Applicant Shah submitted that the SHC on December 19, 2019, had directed the agriculture department to ensure that all best possible combat measures continued against the locust attacks.

He said he had filed a petition seeking aerial and ground spray operations to kill the locusts at agricultural areas of the province. He informed the court that the first generation of locusts in Balochistan could not be controlled by the federal and provincial governments and now the second and third generations had invaded the several districts of the province and caused extensive damage.

He submitted that locusts had now entered heavily cultivated areas and had been eating crops, including wheat, vegetables, sugarcane and crops grown for grazing and fodder of livestock, but the federal and provincial concerned authorities had failed to carry out sprays to kill them.

The petitioner further said that Sindh was second most important province for cotton and wheat production after Punjab, and due to large-scale infestation of locusts in the province the farmers feared that the locusts would destroy the crops fields and damage the plants.

He noted that the federal and provincial governments were directed to carry out ground and aerial sprays to kill the locusts without any further delay to protect the growers’ livelihood; however, no efforts were being taken to protect the corps.

He requested the court to take action against alleged contemnors for violating the court orders.

The secretary for agriculture, supply and price department had filed comments on December 19 last year with regard to the progress of the spray operation against locusts. He had submitted that affected areas were Sukkur (Saleh Pat desert), Ghotki desert, Khairur Nara desert, Tharparkar, Umerkot desert areas, Sanghar (Achro Thar desert), Shaheed Benazirabad, Nausheroferoz, Shikarpur, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Badin.

He had submitted that spray was conducted at 6,546 acres of land and 57 teams of agriculture extension were working in all locust-affected districts and 22 vehicles along with spray machines and pesticides were available in the field. He had said the total area sprayed was 60,112 acres, including 6,546 acres sprayed on December 19 2019, and desert areas were sprayed through aerial and ground operations regularly.

The secretary had submitted that the chief secretary had constituted an implementation and overseas committee on July 24, 2019, to implement precautionary and combat measures against the locust attacks in the province.

Besides, the government had released a fund of Rs16 million to the deputy commissioners of each districts. He submitted that the ministry of agriculture had also announced an emergency over desert locust threat in Sindh and the government had released Rs319.695 million for surveillance and control operations.