Citizen’s Charter

Plant Quarantine Service
The mandate of Plant Quarantine Service within the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage is to prevent the entry, establishment and spread of exotic pests in India as per the provisions of the Destructive Insects & Pests Act, 1914 and the notifications issued thereunder.
The service we provide include

  1. Undertaking the inspection of consignments of plants and plant products moving in international traffic with the object of preventing the introduction and/or spread of pests and surveys for pests of quarantine significance to control, contain and eradicate them.
  2. Providing assurance to importing countries that consignments exported from India are free from pests of quarantine significance through globally acceptable export certification as per International Plant protection Convention (IPPC).
  3. Promoting safe trade by creating awareness amongst customers and effectively implementing transparent policies through trained personnel.

Our objective is to provide an efficient and effective service, which fully satisfies our customers, such as importers, exporters, individuals and the Government.  Through use of appropriate resources and infrastructure and implementation of a consistent set of Operation Manuals across all activities of Plant Quarantine, we will meet our customer needs.
Plant Protection Adviser
Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine & Storage
N.H.IV. Faridabad-121001 (Haryana)

  Our Mission

To protect our plant life from ravages of destructive pests by preventing their entry, establishment and spread;

To facilitate export certification of plants and plant products for safe global trade in agricultural commodities under the international agreements; and

To adopt safe quarantine practices to protect our environment.

Our Vision

To ensure that through the services we provide:

  1. Dynamic quarantine programmes to protect our plant life and environment;
  2. Sound inspection systems to safeguard the interests of farming community and the consumers and
    overseas marketing agencies and
  3. Sustained quality export certification to allow our competitiveness in the global trade in agriculture.

Our Role

  1. Plant quarantine service, within Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage under Department of Agriculture & Co-operation in Ministry of Agriculture, is entrusted with protecting Republic of India from destructive pests alien to the country, while facilitating the international movement of people and global trade in agriculture;
  2. Plant quarantine service provides inspection and certification services to clients through quarantine programmes  delivered through stations distributed all over the country at sea ports, air ports, rail stations & land-border check posts;
  3. We aim at delivering quality services through setting up of state of art of quarantine facilities to reduce the costs and improve client focus;
  4. We aim to work in partnership with our clients by providing programmes and services that reflect the needs of industry and community; and
  5. Our approach to customer service is by increasing the awareness of our employees to meet their customer service obligations and ensuring the delivery of quality customer service.

Our Activities include

  1. Inspection of plants and plant products imported by sea, air, rail & through land border check posts to ensure freedom from destructive pests and allow their clearance or recommend for deportation or destruction in the event of interception of quarantine pests;
  2. Issuance of permits to facilitate safe import of plants and plant material for consumption, seeds, plants and other propagative plant material of restricted plant species, bio-control agents, soil/peat or sphagnum moss, live insects and fungi etc;
  3. Export inspection and phytosanitary certification of plants and plant products in conformity with quarantine regulations of the importing country in order to fulfill our obligations under international agreements;
  4. Undertake post-entry quarantine inspection of imported seeds, plants and other propagative plant material in association with inspection authorities to ensure free from exotic pests;
  5. Undertake fumigation and other treatment of agricultural commodities, cargo containers and ship holds with a view to render the consignments pest-free as well as supervise fumigation operations carried out by approved pest control operators, wherever required;
  6. Undertake survey for incidence of quarantine pests in association with State Department of Agriculture/Horticulture and experts with a view to identify pest-free areas or production sites in accordance with the established international/national standards;
  7. Undertake import risk analysis of commodities in order to identify the quarantine pest risks associated with such imports and setting out import specifications; and
  8. Organising training programmes for customers on plant quarantine and educating the customers with a view to create better quarantine awareness

 

Our Clients or Stakeholders

  1. Ministry of Agriculture and through it the Central Government;
  2. National Plant Protection Organizations of other countries;
  3. State/Union Territory Government Departments and through them their Undertakings; Corporations; Commodity Boards; Academic, Research & Scientific Organisations;
  4. Those involved in import/export of wide range of plants and plant material both for propagation and consumption and their authorized agents;
  5. Seed companies registered with National Seed Corporation and State Seed Corporations;
  6. Those industries and private enterprises and their representative bodies engaged in agri-business that require plant quarantine services to negotiate on their behalf, national and international agreements, policies and protocols to improve market access and trading environment;
  7. Those representing producers/marketing agencies/farming community; voluntary organizations and environmentalists; and
  8. International travelers passing through airports, sea ports and land border check posts, whose goods are subject to plant quarantine clearance and their travel agents/cruise shipping operators/airline and shipping agencies.

What we can expect from our Clients?

In return, we ask that you to:

  1. Provide complete, timely and accurate information on any matter for which we have a legitimate need;
  2. Extend necessary assistance and help in carrying out timely inspections by our staff;
  3. Comply with the requirements of plant quarantine as applicable under the Destructive Insects & Pests Act, 1914 and notifications issued thereunder or other statutory regulations in force and abide by the instructions, guidelines and terms & conditions, where necessary;
  4. Alert immediately the nearby plant quarantine authority/ State Agriculture/ Horticulture departments when a new pest incidence/ outbreak is noticed; and
  5. Treat our staff with courtesy in discharge of their official duties.

Our Commitment

We are committed in partnership with our clients and stakeholders that we will deliver plant quarantine services efficiently and transparently to facilitate trade in agriculture while protecting India’s plant wealth and environment.

Our Values

While delivering services to our clients, we endeavour to conduct ourselves professionally, without any prejudice, in a transparent, efficient and fair manner.

Our Code of Conduct

Plant quarantine (PQ) staff operates under the code of conduct of Civil Service Rules, and we expect that you will advise us if you are aware of any inappropriate behaviour, including unauthorized release of information and that you do not offer any PQ staff any inducement or expect any preferential treatment in dealing with PQ staff.

Our Service Standards

We are committed to reply to your correspondence within 21 days of receipt of your letter, where sourcing of the information is required. If we can’t answer within that time frame, we will contact you and let you know when you can expect the reply. If the matter is outside our purview, we will advise you to whom to contact. We will respond to your requests for any printed information available with us within 7 days of receipt. We answer telephone calls or messages left promptly during normal office hours (09:15 A.M. 5:45 P.M.) excluding week-end holidays (Saturdays/Sundays) and other closed holidays provided you are identified by your name and identify your position. If we are not able to answer your query immediately over phone, we will take your contact details to ensure you get response.

 

Our contacts

If you wish to have more detailed information you may directly contact the Plant Protection Adviser through Telephone Nos. 0129-2413985/2412125(Fax) / 0129-2418504 or 011-23385026 and Additional Plant Protection Adviser(PQ) through 0129-2418506 (O) 0129-2415117 or e-mail us at ppa@nic.in / jdpq@nic.in / pqd@nic.in

Client Feed Back

We would like to hear from you regarding our performance, whether you are satisfied with our performance or we may not have met your expectations. In the first instance you may contact the officer-in-charge of respective plant quarantine stations. If this is not possible, you may contact the Joint/Deputy Director (Ent. /PP) of Regional Plant Quarantine Stations, Amritsar, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai. If you believe your complaint is not receiving appropriate attention you may contact Additional Plant Protection Adviser(PQ) or the Plant Protection Adviser, Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine & Storage, N.H-IV, Faridabad-121001 (Haryana). We will respond to your feedback.
Monitoring & Review

To ensure that this charter remains relevant, up-to-date and reflects our client’s expectations, we welcome and will respond to client feedback and monitor the application of commitments made in this charter. We will publicly report our compliance with the Charter annually.