KOHAT: The farmers and orchard owners of large areas of Tappi and Jarma on DI Khan road here have demanded of the agriculture department to save their orchards from locust attack as the insects have been eating greenery for three days.

They said that despite their repeated appeals to the department concerned no team had been sent to the area to kill the locust and spray the green fields and orchards.

They said the locust had swarmed the areas in such large numbers that every leaf of the trees was covered with the insects.

Haji Iftikhar, president of farmers association, said they again called the agriculture department on Saturday morning to send teams, but it said the staff was busy somewhere else.

An official, Haziq Ali Shah, told this correspondent they knew that the locust had attacked green fields and orchards in Jarma and Tappi areas, but they had their own strict schedule.

He said heavy locust had attacked Shakardarra near Punjab border and they were leaving for the area to spray it.

He said they would also send teams to Tappi and Jarma after return from Shakardarra. He said they had been receiving reports of locust attack from many areas.

ADULTERATED MILK: The food safety authority and livestock department in a joint operation have fined owners of three milk tankers about Rs80,000 cumulatively for carrying adulterated milk with high water levels to Peshawar from DI Khan via Kohat.

Deputy director Kamran Khan and food safety officers checked the milk in mobile laboratory and found adulteration of up to 15 per cent in it.

Each tanker was fined Rs26,000 with a warning not to mix water in the milk in future.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020