7 years on, Palampur facility for farmers has nothing but foundation stone

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, June 23

The foundation stone of the building of the Northern Himalayan Regional Office, under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA), was laid about seven years ago on 30 May, 2017, jointly by Dr SK Patnaik, the then Secretary of Agriculture Corporation and Farmers Welfare Department, Government of India; and Ashok Kumar Sarial, the then Vice Chancellor of the Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University (CSK HPKV), Palampur.

This office falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the Government of India. An important office for the Government of India, the area of operation of this office is spread over five states of North India — Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Its main objective is to contribute to the protection of farmers’ rights — including providing protection to endangered crop varieties of hill states and encouraging growers to conserve endangered crops by honouring them at the national level.

Surprisingly, despite seven years having been passed since the foundation stone was laid, almost no progress has been made to the project.

Interestingly, at present, this regional office, which has been running from two rooms of the CSK HPKV for the past seven years, is being operated with the help of retired and temporary employees.

Vice-Chancellor of CSK HPKV Ashok Kumar Sarial had played an instrumental role in the works of the building from the approval of the regional office to its establishment.

He had also made available the land of the CSK HPKV for the construction of the office building.

Twice, proposals for the Plant Genome Savour Award of Rs 10 lakh each were also approved as an incentive to the farmers of the state for the protection of the dwindling local varieties.

Seven years ago, the former chairman of the Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Protection Authority, Dr RR Hanchinal, who was present at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the office, had assured that the office would be fully functional within a year. His tenure, however, soon ended after the foundation stone was laid.

After Hanchinal, two others took charge as chairmen, but due to a “lack of interest” in the office, it is still being run temporarily out of two rooms at the university.

The employees working at the office have also been appointed on an ad hoc basis.

It was learned that during current chairman Dr Tarlochan Mahapatra’s visit to Palampur last year, Sarial had brought the matter of construction of a permanent building and appointment of permanent employees to his notice. The situation, however, seems to not have changed.

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