HYDERABAD, Oct 24: Sindh agriculture secretary Nazar Hussain Mahar has rescinded the administrative authority of DG agriculture extension over the Directorate of Plant Protection Sindh and put it under the administrative control of Director General agriculture research.

He took note of growers complaints about availability of substandard fertilizer and pesticide in the market through connivance of field staff.

According to an official handout, the secretary said in a letter to that sale of substandard fertilizer and pesticide was a serious challenge to the department and was disastrous for agriculture in the province.

He said that this has resulted in colossal financial losses to hundreds of growers.

He said it was necessary to take effective steps to curb this menace.

He said that henceforth all staff of laboratories of fertilizer and pesticide testing in agriculture department would be directly placed under the control and supervision of plant protection Sindh by withdrawing the powers earlier delegated to the DG agriculture extension.

Mr Mahar said that now, the directorate of plant protection Sindh would work under the administrative control of DG agriculture research, Dr Haji Khan Keerio, who has been assigned to write ACR of director plant protection.

Besides, all transfers and postings pertaining to testing laboratories would be made with the consultation of director plant protection and DG agriculture research by the administrative department.

He said that in order to make this agriculture wing more effective a major publicity campaign will be launched to seek cooperation and feedback from public.

In addition to this, he said, instructions have been issued for taking at least four samples in presence of growers representatives, submitting weekly report, conducting quarterly inspection of testing labs.

He said that instructions have also been issued to concerned officers for keeping all laboratories one each at Rohri, Mirpurkhas, Jamshoro and Hyderabad in good working condition, arranging training of staff, preparing feasibility report for rehabilitation and updating fertilizer and pesticide testing laboratories and taking legal action against firms found involved in substandard fertilizer and pesticides.

WorkShop: The vice-chancellor of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Dr Jan Mohammad Memon, has stressed the need for use of information technology in medical sciences and healthcare.

He was speaking at a digital library workshop for the promotion of e-journal access and ad-vanced techniques organized at the university campus recently.

The higher education commission’s representative, Ms Urooj Fatima, who is also the regional coordinator of digital library conducted the workshop with hands-on-training for the researchers and postgraduate students.