THE Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Monday busted another pesticide racket and booked five people, including three officials of the Agriculture Department, for allegedly procuring and selling spurious pesticides to farmers in Phillaur region. Four of the accused have been arrested while the alleged kingpin is absconding.

The accused include block agriculture officer, Phillaur, Dr Ranjit Singh; assistant agriculture officer Dilpreet Singh; assistant agriculture officer Anwar Ali and owners of the godown where the alleged spurious pesticides were kept — Surinder Pal and Bhupinder Singh Phillaur.

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A case under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Insecticide Act has been registered against them. Jalandhar SSP (Vigilance) Satinder Singh said raids are being conducted to nab Ranjit Singh, the main accused.

The probe in the case had been marked by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on October 1 after reports that spurious pesticides were being sold to paddy farmers at Phillaur. The racket comes amid investigations into the major whitefly pesticide scam in Punjab.
According to the vigilance bureau, Ranjit Singh was behind the sale of three types of pesticides on the pretence that they were recommended by the Punjab government .

The VB says that not only are the pesticides not recommended, but are not to be sold in the state. In their statements to VB officials, the farmers have alleged that Dr Ranjit Singh was keeping the pesticides at the house of one Surinderpal Singh, a pesticide dealer.

SSP Satinder Singh said that when a farmer Pritpal Singh complained to a senior officer in the agriculture department, Ranjit Singh got 125 packets of the chemical from Surinderpal’s house and threw them near the Sutlej. Police have recovered these packets.