Enforce ban on Chinese garlic, says Mandi MP

Tribune News Service

Mandi, July 30

Mandi MP Ramswaroop Sharma has sought strict enforcement of ban on garlic from China.

He submitted a memorandum to Union Minister of State for Industry and Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi yesterday. Sharma said China was illegally sending garlic infested with fungus in India.

A major trade of the Chinese garlic was taking place in Himachal Pradesh. According to the information, the garlic was being pushed into the country through Cochin and Coimbatore, he added.

The MP said the fungus-infested garlic was being openly sold in major cities of the country despite a ban imposed by the Union government on the import of Chinese garlic.

It was shocking that the garlic had reached the markets despite the ban, he said. Garlic was grown on a large scale in the state, but people were buying Chinese garlic because it was cheap, he said.

The government should strictly enforce the ban on the Chinese garlic and investigate as how it had reached the Indian markets despite a ban, he said.

Farmers of the state were suffering a lot due to the cheap and diseased Chinese garlic, he said.