Uproar in Himachal over sending 3 Congress MLAs abroad under the Horticulture Development Project
There has been an uproar in Himachal Pradesh over sending 3 Congress MLAs abroad under the Horticulture Development Project (HDP). In fact, BJP leader Sandipani Bhardwaj had accused three Congress MLAs from non-Apple Belt of being sent on an outing and misuse of government funds.
The government is being criticized across the state regarding this. Apple growers are protesting against this decision of the government. Meanwhile, Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi clarified that no MLA will go on a foreign tour, rather horticulture officials will be sent.
The BJP leader had alleged that under the Horticulture Development Project, Congress MLA from Barsar Indra Dutt Lakhanpal, Arki MLA Sanjay Awasthi, and Nahan MLA Ajay Solanki are being sent abroad. He had sought intervention from Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu in this matter.
If the Horticulture Department is to be believed, now under the HDP project, 36 horticulture extension officers, horticulture development officers, and subject matter specialists are being sent to Serbia. Its clearance file has been sent to the state government. As soon as the government gives the green signal, three dozen officers will be sent to Serbia.
It is being told that Serbia’s planting material and nurseries are considered the best in the world. That’s why so many officers are being sent to Serbia at once. Their tour is being organized under the HDP project. This project is also coming to an end after seven to eight months.
More than 5 years have passed since the HDP project was implemented. But during this period, not a single gardener was given an exposure visit to this project, whereas four to five hours of leaders and officials have been made. Therefore questions are being raised on the project. Due to this, anger towards the government is also increasing among the gardeners.
Ashutosh Chauhan, vice president of the Progressive Growers Association (PGA), said that growers should also be taken along on the exposure tour. Till now, leaders and officers have done many tours. Some of these people also retired. The gardeners would benefit from such an exposure tour if the officers interacted with the gardeners after their tour, but to date, this has not been done even once.
Tours of leaders and officers are proving to be an excursion. Progressive Growers Association (PGA) President Lokendra Bisht said that even in the previous government, only politicians and officers did tours. Going to this government also, but the former did not get any benefit. After such tours, there should be seminars with the gardeners so that the gardeners can benefit from what they learned in the tour. Therefore this tour is less exposure and more sightseeing.
