The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from Centre on a plea for a ban on 85 pesticides since these were banned in other countries but were allowed in India, posing a serious health hazards to farmers.
A bench of Justice Arun Misra and Justice Vineet Saran issued notice to the Centre and others on a plea by one Kavita Kuruganti who said that the continued use of "deadly pesticides" is a major threat to the right to life of farm workers and farmers.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, argued for empowering the states to take decisions at their own level for prohibition and restriction related to pesticides.
The plea said: "The continued use of deadly pesticides is a major threat to the right to life of farm workers and farmers. Just in terms of acute poisoning, without even getting into chronic health impacts, the situation is alarming and needs urgent action to remove deadly poisons from the scene."
The plea said though there was much evidence of the success of agricultural practices like organic farming in terms of profitability for farmers and crop productivity, these deadly pesticides were still in use.
It said that 84 cases of hospitalisation in Yavatmal in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and 40 other cases stand testimony to this danger.
--IANS
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