The death of 35 farmers and/or labourers of pesticide poisoning in Vidarbha has opened acan of worms, highlighting the slow reaction and lack of coordination among officials at the grassroots and the district level. Kishore Tiwari, who heads the state government’s task force on farm distress, blamed faulty government policies for the deaths. “The government officials in every department work without understanding the ground reality,” said Tiwari.The deaths, largely between July and October, were flagged off by media reports. Agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar admitted on October 6, during a visit to the affected areas, that the district administration did not alert the state government on time. A report by his ministry says it’s a case of collapse of the entire district administration. Officials said the problem escalated owing to the lack of information and co-ordination among field officials. “The local government hospital, police patil and local revenue and agricultural officers should have alerted higher authorities. Dying declarations should have been recorded by the police,” said Fundkar.Local agricultural officials were also negligent when it came to quality control, he admitted. Local government hospitals were poorly equipped to deal with the crisis, the minister said. Anil Killor, president of NGO Janmanch, who visited the Yavatmal government hospital, said: “The situation is so bad a farmer doesn’t know which pesticide to use and doctors are unsure about the treatment as half the pesticides packets don’t carry name of any antidotes.” The problem is believed to have spiked this year because of an increase in use of pesticide to deal with the pink bollworm pest affecting Bt Cotton, a genetically modified variety.A mixture of profefonos and cypermethrin was used leading to the deaths, say farmers. VN Waghmare of the Central Institute For Cotton Research, told TOIthat cultivation practices have shifted towards short-term gains which are having negative long-term effects. “The cotton sowed in June should be terminated in November or December. But farmers extend it for two months more. Due to this, the cycle of pink bollworm doesn’t break,” he said. Amore powerful Chinese-made sprayer is being blamed. “It releases a large amount of pesticide, almost a litre/minute,” said Fundkar. CM Devendra Fadnavis said these would be banned.