ICAR shelves funding for setting up of PGIHRE due to non-availability of land

Indian council of agriculture research (ICAR) has temporary shelved the setting up of Post-graduate Institute of Horticulture Research and Education (PGIHRE) due to non-availability of land in Amritsar by not allocating any fund for it. Earlier, union govt had allotted special economic zone, had met similar fate over one and a half decade ago.

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Similarly, the PGIHR is heading to the same path is causing serious disappointment to the farming community of the state.

The Deputy Director General (Horticulture Science) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi has informed through an email that since no significant progress has been made in the matter related to availability of land for establishing the PGIHRE. The official communiqué informed that the ICAR did not keep any financial provision for the said purpose during the financial cycles 2021-22 to 2025-26. As per the reliable sources of the ICAR, the EFC Memo prepared for the 2016-2021 financial Cycle, the appointment of 206 horticulture scientists was sanctioned besides the budget for raising buildings of the campus.

The centrally funded prestigious Institute was sanctioned by the then Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in 2015.

Manmohan Singh Brar of the Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) said the international horticulture scientists developed seedless Mango, seedless Litchi (chinensis) and Seedless Jamun (Cerasus cornuta) varities along with juice-filled orange varieties. Similar developments were expected here.

The Akali-BJP Punjab government transferred 100 acres of land at village Attari (Amritsar) designated for the research work. But for the establishment of administrative, academic and residential blocks of the PGIHRE Amritsar, another chunk of land measuring 30 acres was required.

All the Six Sub-divisional Magistrates of the Amritsar district and the District Development and Panchayat Officer Amritsar gave in written that no suitable land is available in the district.

Members of the Amritsar Vikas Manch requested state government to purchase the selected land and inform the authorities of the ICAR, so that the Central Agriculture Research Department may keep the financial provision for the financial Cycle 2025-26 to 2030-31 for the establishment of PGIHRE Amritsar.