Register cases against pesticide makers responsible for selling unlicensed products in Yatvatmal: CM Fadnavis

Mumbai, October 23: After Special Investigation Team was constituted to fast-track the probe; Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the Yavatmal district administration to register cases of culpable homicide against the pesticide manufacturers and wholesalers responsible for selling unlicensed products that led to the deaths of at least 50 farm labourers and farmers in Vidarbha.

A preliminary investigation revealed the dealers and manufacturers violated the Insecticides Act, 1969 while selling the pesticides. CM Fadnavis instructed the district machinery to ensure farmers take precautions while spraying pesticides in their fields. Most of the pesticide-related deaths, 24, were reported in Yavatmal, a major cotton-growing district that has often been in the news for farmer suicides. The farmers died after spraying pesticides on their cotton crop. Around 1,000 farmers, most of them landless labourers, suffered breathing problems, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, skin rashes, dizziness and headaches. Around 100 farmers are still recovering in hospital.

Fadnavis also visited the government-run medical college and hospital on Sunday morning and met those affected. The district administration has supplied more than 8,000 new kits that would ensure farmers did not inhale pesticides. Rs 50 lakh were also provided to the medical college and hospital at Yavatmal for farmers’ treatment.

The death toll touched 50 where farmers got killed after getting poisoned due to pesticides in the cotton fields of Yavatmal district, the state government constituted 7-member Special Investigation Team to carry out an investigation and also issued an advisory to prevent any untoward incidents from happening.