BRS leader Vinod Kumar urges govt. to ban herbicide ‘paraquat dichloride’

HYDERABAD

Senior leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former MP B. Vinod Kumar requested the State government to immediately ban weedicide/herbicide ‘paraquat dichloride’ as it is claiming the lives at least 20 farmers every month in several district hospitals following its accidental ingestion by them or its intentional consumption.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he stated that pesticide companies were making and selling the herbicide widely with the claims that it would kill weeds completely, hiding the facts about its ill effects. About 70 countries across the world had banned the herbicide since it had no antidote available.

In India, the Odisha government had banned it in 2023 and extended the ban every six months. He said forensic medicine doctors of Gandhi Hospital here, MGM Warangal and the district hospital at Karimnagar also revealed herbicide as the reason in suicides. The Agriculture department officials and the Vice Chancellor of Prof. Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University too were in favour of banning the herbicide.

Mr. Vinod Kumar further stated that the State chapter chairman of the Indian Medical Association too had written a letter to the government seeking a ban on the herbicide. A doctor from Kondagattu in Jagtial district Marri Mahesh Reddy and his team was visiting villages in the area to create awareness among farmers against the herbicide.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Mr. Vinod Kumar requested for measures to ban the herbicide and to create awareness among the farming community to use lesser dangerous herbicides or use of alternative methods such as brush cutters.