Penalise firms for not finishing solar fencing work on time: Negi
Revenue and Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi today directed officials concerned to penalise companies engaged in the Himachal Pradesh Subtropical Horticulture, Irrigation and Value Addition (HP SHIVA) Project if they failed to complete solar fencing and field preparation work on time.
Negi, while chairing a meeting of the governing council of the HP SHIVA Project here, asked Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar Horticulture and Forestry University, Nauni, to provide high-quality plants of plum and Japanese fruit (persimmon) to farmers. He also directed the officials concerned to purchase water-soluble nutrients and pesticides of branded companies through a tender and also purchase high-tech spray kits, pumps and other equipment with the cooperation of the HPMC.
The minister said that the HP SHIVA Project was being implemented in seven districts of the state with an outlay of $163 million (Rs 1,292 crore) and so far, Rs 190 crore had been spent under it. Solar fencing was proposed on 4,000 hectares and a target had been set to complete the work on 2,750 hectares by June. So far, solar fencing had been completed on 828 hectares, he added.
Negi said that only ‘true-to-type’ plants should be given to farmers, the quality of which had been tested in the molecular lab at Neri. Also, samples taken from fields were tested and the reports were made available in seven or eight days, he added.
He said that the Nauni university would provide 40,000 plum and persimmon plants each by February, 2026, and one lakh plants by 2027. Director (Horticulture) Vinay Kumar, Director (Agriculture) Kumud Singh and HPMC Managing Director Sudesh Mokhta attended the meeting.
