LAHORE, June 20: Governor Khalid Maqbool claimed on Thursday that special monitoring teams were being formed to check distribution of water and spurious pesticides.

The governor was presiding over a high-level meeting participated in by officials of the law enforcing agencies and the agriculture department.

The teams, comprising experts, would remain in the field for 15 days and raid every shop in the province to weed out the menace of sub-standard pesticides. An additional secretary of the agriculture department will head these teams and ensure 100 per cent compliance with strict monitoring standards, he said. The number of laboratories to check quality of pesticides had been increased from three to six to ensure effectiveness of the campaign.

Similarly, the teams checking water distribution would visit every distributary, if need be, to ensure equitable distribution of water in the province. No one would be allowed to steal water, he asserted.

The governor further stated that the government had proved its farmer-friendly policies by effectively protecting the interest of small farmers during the recent wheat procurement drive. Over 2.85 million tons of wheat had already been procured and a huge amount of Rs21 billion paid to farmers; this would hugely improve socio-economics of the rural Punjab.