KARACHI: Six employees of the Sindh Agriculture Department died in different areas of the province during exposure to anti-locust pesticide drives.
The campaign against locusts was started by the Sindh government last year in order to protect crops from attacks.
Sindh Minister for Agriculture, Ismail Rahu said on Tuesday the employees had fainted while the pesticide was being sprayed, after which they were taken to hospitals.
According to medical reports, four of them were also diagnosed with the novel COVID-19 at hospitals, while two had suffered cardiac arrests,
Rahu said in a summary presented to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah requested that the deceased be declared “martyrs” and also urged the chief minister to provide jobs to their family members.
The minister said he had also requested the government to issue bonuses for those participating in the anti-locust spray campaign. Locust swarms entered Balochistan last year in March and spread to Sindh by June 2019.
After summer breeding in Nara and Thar deserts of Sindh, locusts migrated to the Indian Rajasthan desert in July and re-entered in Sindh in October 2019, partially destroying the crop of wheat, mustard and vegetables.
Last month, the federal government announced that a Beaver aircraft had been deployed in Tharparkar for an aerial spray to control locusts.
Earlier on June 21, the government announced Rs26 billion worth of funds to fight the locust outbreak that threatens food security in Pakistan.
Minister for National Food Security Fakhar Imam said that the desert locust situation in Pakistan has found a new corridor. “They are entering Pakistan from Afghanistan to Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan,” he added.
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