The government is considering legislation to check the sale of spurious and substandard seed to farmers. The farm authorities are facing problems in regulating the supply of seed as the existing law is inadequate and full of loopholes. The Centre had introduced a Bill to replace it four years ago but it had not been passed till date. The proposed law provides for mandatory registration of seed companies with the central as well as state registering authority. Besides, it proposes to make it mandatory the trials of seed in the state concerned and certify that the seed is suitable for sowing. Under the existing Act, the department can only test the seed for physical purity and percentage germination and there is no mandatory provision for trials to assess the suitability. The farmers suffer when spurious seeds that are not suitable for sowing in the state are supplied to them. The department has been receiving complaints from farmers in this connection regularly. However, the authorities could not do much in such cases as there is no provision for stopping the companies from selling seeds not subjected to trials. The Tamil Nadu government has enacted its own seed law with all required provisions to effectively regulate the sale of seeds in the state. The state government plans to have a similar law and the agriculture department has already started an exercise in this regard. A team of experts from Tamil Nadu will visit the state shortly to discuss the matter and also provide training to officials for effective enforcement of the seed law. The annual turnover of he seed business in the state is about Rs 30 crore and there are 1211 seed dealers in the state, including 881 in the private sector, 158 in the cooperative sector and 172 in the public sector. Director of agriculture J.C Rana said with a view to solving the problem of spurious seeds the farmers were being encouraged to produce good-quality seeds under the seed village programme. The foundation seed is supplied to farmers at a 50 per cent subsidy and every farmer is provided seed for sowing in over half an acre of land. Camps were also being organised to provide training to farmers in seed technology, safe storage and other aspects of seed production. YC chief Katoch assumes charge Tribune News Service Shimla, July 14 New state Youth Congress chief Manmohan Katoch, who formally took charge of the frontal organisation today, began his innings on an encouraging note with leaders of the rival camps of the faction-ridden party gracing the occasion. YC activists, who had gathered in strength at Congress Bhawan, were indeed pleased to see Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes, besides former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, blessing the new incumbent. The youth wing of the party has witnessed a change at the top almost after a gap of a decade. Katoch took over from Sukhwinder Singh, who remained at the helm all this while. The party high command seems to have token the caste and regional factors into consideration while choosing him for the job. Katoch hails from Kangra, the biggest and politically most significant district in the state, and belongs to the numerically dominant Rajput community. Manmohan assured senior party leaders that the youth wing would make its full contribution in the Lok Sabha poll due next year. He said the talent hunt method would not be used for selecting district office- bearers as there was little time left for undertaking such an exercise. He would rather tour all districts and choose his team after due consultations.