LAHORE, Feb 7: The government would set up a Rs100 million laboratory to detect overuse of pesticides on fruits and vegetables, provincial agriculture minister Arshad Lodhi told the Punjab Assembly here on Friday.

He was speaking in response to an adjournment motion of PML-Q’s Shehla Shahid Butt, who had called the attention of the house to the practice of picking vegetables immediately after pesticides spray, which caused immense damage to consumers’ health.

Mr Lodhi said the laboratory would become operative by the end of the year.

The field staff of the agriculture department had also been directed to assemble farmers at the union council level and teach them on safe use of pesticides, he said.

PPP’s Rana Aftab Ahmad urged the speaker to frame some rules to ban the use of number plates bearing the word MPA on more than one vehicle by members of the house.

He said there were at least 3,000 vehicles bearing such plates on road while the strength of the house was only 370. He feared that the plates could be misused by anti-social elements.

He suggested that the speaker’s secretariat should record the registration number of the vehicle allowed to use the plate.