Harmful repetition: Pesticide Management Bill needs a thorough revision

The draft Pesticide Management Bill, 2017, put out by the Union government for public comments, appears to have failed to address several issues, including key concerns of the stakeholders, especially farmers. It is more or less a repackaged version of the Bill introduced in Parliament by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2008; that Bill was abandoned for unexplained reasons. So it is not surprising that, much like the UPA Bill, this draft, too, does not show any marked improvement over the outdated Insecticides Act, 1968, which it seeks to replace. Nor does it incorporate some of the important changes suggested by the parliamentary standing committee, which had deliberated on the UPA Bill. However, the latest draft has widened the scope of the proposed law to cover some additional facets of production, sale, and usage of plant protection chemicals.

The most critical drawback, however, in the Bill is its utter lack of concern over the use of perilous pesticides that have been banned in other countries. At present, at least seven of the 18 Class-1 pesticides deemed extremely or highly hazardous, and discarded elsewhere, are being allowed to be produced and used in India. These account for nearly one-third of the country’s total pesticides consumption. Though some major pesticides-using states such as Maharashtra and Punjab intend to ban a few of these chemicals, they are handicapped as the existing law does not allow them to do so for more than 90 days without the Centre’s approval. The proposed statute merely extends this period to 240 days. Worse still, the new Bill retains the clause of the present law that allows provisional registration of pesticides introduced from abroad for up to two years pending generation of safety and efficacy data. Environment and health experts feel — and rightly so — that two years of use are long enough to cause major harm.

The need to revamp the legal regime governing the pesticides sector has assumed urgency in view of the recent deaths of farmers due to pesticide poisoning in Maharashtra and adjoining states. The incidence of rejection of export-bound cargoes because of unacceptably high levels of toxic residues has also been on the rise. This has heightened concerns about the environmental and health hazards from indiscriminate use of unsafe chemicals, especially spurious and illegitimate pesticides. The proposed Bill, sadly, does not contain foolproof measures to address these issues, though it stipulates much stiffer penalties for the offenders than what are prescribed at present. However, the punishment clause is worded rather inappropriately, leaving room for ascribing culpability to the users (read unwary farmers) instead of those who manufacture or deal in spurious, substandard or unapproved pesticides.

Moreover, the proposed legislation does little to promote indigenous research and development (R&D) to encourage discovery of less hazardous molecules targeted specifically at local pests, diseases and weeds. The lack of such R&D is one of the significant reasons for increasing reliance on pesticides forbidden abroad. The Bill is also weak in ensuring compensation to farmers for losses due to substandard pesticides. This aspect has been left for coverage under the Consumer Protection Act. Thus, the proposed Bill needs to be thoroughly reappraised and duly amended before it is made into a law. Otherwise, it would be a wasteful exercise.