Minister for Horticulture, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Syed Basharat Bukhari today called for strengthening laws, rules in Horticulture sector to make it grower friendly besides dissuading unscrupulous practices in the state.The Minister said this while chairing a meeting convened to take concrete review of all governing laws pertaining to the Horticulture sector applicable in the state.Secretary Home RK Goyal, Secretary Law Abdul Majid Bhat, Secretary Horticulture Manzoor Ahmad Lone, Director Horticulture Kashmir Manzoor Ahmad Qadiri, Director Law Enforcement Susheel Sahni, Managing Director JKHPMC, besides other concerned officers were present in the meeting.The meeting addressed all relevant laws and rules pertaining to horticulture sector, especially those directed at curbing trade of spurious pesticides, insecticides, other carcinogenic substances that degrade the quality and health of state’s produce as well as soil health.The Minister calling for strong measures to dissuade such practices in the state said “With large population of state involved in Horticulture sector and government launching multiple schemes to facilitate growers, there is a parallel need and requirement to strength the law enforcement mechanism to protect growers as well as the consumers who actively seek Kashmir’s produce”.
“Kashmir as a brand is synonym with quality, and if the recent trend of unscrupulous activities is allowed to continue, we would not only be damaging the fruit produce market but also the whole brand” Bukhari asserted.The Minister directing for additional measures to strengthen the enforcement mechanism in the state, asked all concerned to take thorough review of the existing laws in the context of present times and suggest amendments, changes to strengthen them to make them more grower and state friendly.He further called for augmenting physical, personnel infra at the Enforcement Directorate, so that the wing can take up regular market checking measures. He asked the concerned to update the Pesticide Checking Laboratories in Srinagar and Jammu with modern technical infra so that samples can be tested within the state and accurate results derived in a short span of time for quick action. He also directed for allocation of requisite trained staff at the laboratories.