Fate of Karnal horticulture varsity hangs in balance

Stone was laid four years ago, but drawing of project yet to be finalised

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, February 24

The fate of Maharana Pratap Horticulture University at Anjanthali hangs in balance as almost four years after laying of the foundation stone, only boundary wall and entry gate has been constructed. The project drawing and construction agency are yet to be finalised.

With the aim to develop human resources in the field of horticulture, the state government had announced this university for Karnal district. The foundation stone of the project was laid by former Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on April 6, 2016.

The government had planned to construct this university on 118 acres with the estimated cost of Rs 486 crore with three regional centres one each at Raiya in Jhajjar, Chandsoli in Ambala and Badhana in Jind. The government has sanctioned Rs 150 for the project so far.

The classes for MSc and PhD are running from the campus of Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, for the last two years. Now, the authorities of the university have planned to start the classes of B.Sc (Horticulture) from July this year for which pre-engineering structural buildings will be constructed on the premises of the horticulture university.

“The government is only making promises. Nothing has been done on ground. The ambitious projects are hanging fire for several months in the CM’s district,” said Pankaj Punia, former state Congress secretary.

Prof Samar Singh, Vice Chancellor of the university, admitted that the drawing and construction agency were yet to be approved, but he is hopeful that by the end of March, the drawing and agency will be finalised and the work will commence in April.

“Earlier, the HAU, Hisar, was assigned the work for holding tenders and finalising the agency. It had invited tenders for boys’ hostel in 2019, but it was cancelled. Now, we have started the process to invite tenders. The drawing is being finalised for which a meeting has been held with the ACS of the department,” said the VC.

“We will start B.Sc classes here in July for which makeshift arrangements are being made. I am hopeful the project design and construction agency will be finalised by the end of March and work will commence in April,” he said.

The deadline of the project would be two year after the commencement of the work, he added.

Dr Ajay Yadav, Registrar of the university, said recruitments of the teaching and non-teaching staff were being made. “There will be 40 seats for B.Sc Horticulture, while six seats have been reserved for MSc and PhD,” he added.

Box: Mushroom centre now under varsity

The VC said Mushroom and Beekeeping Research and Development Project in Sonepat has been transferred under this university. He maintained that fruit science, vegetable science and flowery culture, aesthetic plants, landscaping, medicinal plants, mushroom and beekeeping are part of horticulture. “We have started training of farmers there,” he added.