New Delhi: Passage of bills to check spurious
seeds and pesticides has been delayed and Agriculture Minister
Sharad Pawar is blaming the Opposition-engineered deadlock in
Parliament for it.
"My friends at Parliament are busy with something else...
and hence, we could not discuss the Seed Bill and the
Pesticides Management Bill," he said prompting laughter from
the audience at a conference on rural prosperity through
agriculture at Vigyan Bhavan here today.
The proceedings of Parliament has been stalled for 16
straight working days, as the Opposition is unrelenting on its
demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into
allocation of mobile phone 2G spectrum in 2008.
"I am not getting time to discuss (the bills). I hope
the situation will change," Pawar said.
The Seeds Bill, 2004, seeks to regulate the quality of
seeds and planting materials to ensure the availability of
quality seeds to farmers, to protect their rights and curb the
sale of spurious and poor quality seeds.
It also aims at increasing private participation in seed
production, distribution and liberalising imports of seeds and
planting materials.
The Pesticides Management Bill, 2008, seeks to improve
the quality of pesticides available to farmers and introduce
new, safe and efficacious pesticides.
It also stipulates more effective regulation of import,
manufacture, export, sale, transport, distribution and use of
pesticides, to prevent risk to human beings, animals or
environment.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 03, 2010, 20:51