JAMMU and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed various issues, including the recent spurt in violent incidents in the Kashmir Valley, an official said.
During the 30-minute meeting, the Chief Minister briefed the Home Minister about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the steps taken to maintain peace in the State. Singh assured Mehbooba of all central assistance to her Govt in maintaining peace in the State, a Home Ministry official said.
The spurt of violence in Jammu and Kashmir include attacks on security personnel, killing of a PDP worker and the subsequent attack on his house and throat slitting of a teacher.
Alleged incidents of braid chopping have also triggered panic in some parts of the State. TAKING note of reported death of over 35 farmers along with hundreds of them becoming ill in the districts of Yavatmal, Nagpur, Akola and Amravati Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, where farm workers died due to inhalation of toxic pesticides while spraying it on the fields since July this year, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an NGO has put the blame on India’s abysmal management of pesticides for taking this deadly toll.
Holding the Ministry of Agriculture at the Centre and agricultural departments of the states solely responsible for the unsafe use of pesticides in the country, the Deputy Director General of CSE Chandra Bhushan has said the deaths and illnesses due to pesticides can be avoided if we can urgently fix some of the crucial gaps in our regulations and improve its enforcement.
The death of farmers in Maharashtra due to pesticide poisoning is because of the gross negligence in pesticide management in the country, said Bhushan in New Delhi on Wednesday, adding this negligence has led to pesticide poisoning becoming a chronic problem in the country.
He informed that every year, there are about 10,000 reported cases of pesticide poisoning in India. In 2015, about 7,000 people died because of accidental intake of insecticides/pesticides, he told. Bhushan told that in Maharashtra, pesticides such as Monocrotophos, Oxydemetonmethyl, Acephate and Profenophos are believed to be responsible for the deaths and illness. Pesticides like Monocrotophos and Oxydemeton-methyl are considered class I pesticides by the World Health Organization (WHO), which are further categorised into extremely hazardous (class Ia) and highly hazardous (class Ib), told DG of CSE.
Informing that the classification is based on acute toxicity of pesticide active ingredient and since class I pesticides can be fatal at a very low dose, many of these are banned in several countries, Bhushan told that Monocrotophos is banned in 60 countries, Phorate in 37, Triazophos in 40 and Phosphamidon banned in 49 countries.
Mentioning that India still allows the use of these pesticides, the CSE official told in fact, there are 18 class I pesticides allowed to be used in the country. He told that in 2015-16, out of the 7,717 THE Maharashtra Government has decided to fully fund the phone-an-ambulance service across Maharashtra, a Government resolution (GR) issued on Wednesday said.
It was partially funded by the Centre, and now state government has decided to bear its total expenditure, said the GR.
Under Maharashtra Emergency Medical Service (MEMS), the Maharashtra Government had provided hundreds of ambulances across the state with a common emergency number of 108.
One has to dial it from mobile or landline number and the ambulance service was available free of cost.
The scheme, which launched during the tenure of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, was expanded in the subsequent years by the present BJP Government.
The Government resolution stated that tonnes of pesticides (technical grade) used in the country, 2,254 tonnes were class I pesticides (about 30 per cent of total pesticides). Stating that till we reform our pesticides regulations and regulatory institutions, pesticide poisoning and accidental deaths would continue, Chandra Bhushan i stressed on the need to have a new Pesticide Management Bill to address the issues related to unsafe use of pesticides. As per the International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management, jointly released by FAO and WHO, “pesticides whose handling and application require the use of personal protective equipment that is uncomfortable, expensive or not readily available should be avoided, especially in the case of small-scale users and farm workers in hot climates”.
All class I pesticides require the use of personal protective equipment that is impossible to use by small-scale farmers and farm workers in India. On this basis itself, class I pesticides should have been banned in India long ago, say CSE researchers. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, based on a 2015 review by the Anupam Verma Committee, plans to ban only three out of these 18 pesticides starting 2018. the partially funded Centre’s scheme will now be handed over to the state government and all types of expenses will be borne by the state government.
“It is a routine procedure and it happens with most of the schemes. The Centre helps the state government to launch a particular scheme, funds it and eventually withdraws its funding so that it could take up new projects,” Archana Patil, director of state health department told PTI on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra Government has sanctioned Rs 15.34 crore for the MEMS to be used till March 2018, the GR stated.
The GR has also restricted the health department not to make any fresh purchases of ambulances or equipment. The sanctioned funds have to be used mostly for running the ambulance service such as salaries of the staff, diesel expenses among others. RETIREMENT fund manager Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has launched an online facility for its subscribers to link their 12-digit unique Aadhaar number with their Universal Account Number (UAN) on eve of Diwali.
Meeting the know your customers norms by the EPFO subscribers help them access a host of online services. “On the eve of Deepawali, the EPFO is pleased to introduce a new facility for its esteemed members having UAN and other relevant details to link their respective UAN with Aadhaar online. Thiswould facilitate a better and speedy EPFO services,” the EPFO said in statement.
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