SAHIWAL, Feb 4: A joint team of Fateh Sher police and the agriculture department during a raid on Saturday arrested a person for selling substandard corn seeds and pesticides worth Rs350,000 on Kacha Noor Shah Road.

The team also recovered seeds and pesticides packed in bags of Monsanto, Pioneer and Four Brothers Company. On a tip-off, DDO (Agriculture Extension) Kaleem Nisar along with police raided Rajput Bhatti Agriculture Services and found that owner Tanveer did not have dealership certificate of two corn seed multinationals and a local company. Police recovered bags of Monsanto corn brand “6142”, Pioneer corn seed brand “32B33” and Four Brothers fake pesticide “Tarzon Bottles,.”

Talking to Dawn, Dr. Raiz, deputy director of Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, said under the Seed Act 1976 the department could impose a fine of Rs1,000 on a person selling substandard seeds. “In most of the cases people cannot be charged under the Seed Act 1976 as the act does not provide for punishment.”

DDO Kaleem Nisar said police arrested Tanveer and filed a criminal case (FIR 58/12) under section 11, 12/A9-10 of the Pesticide Ordinance 1971. “This section provides for punishment for those dealers who are selling pesticides without invoice and authorised dealership.”

Three days back, the Federal Seed Certification officials seized 100 bags of substandard seed consignment from Gulshan Ali Housing Scheme near bypass in Sahiwal but the accused were not officially charged under the Seed Act 1976.

The seed certification department asked Pioneer and Monsanto to be complainants against the person, but both multinational companies denied to do so.