Soon, 400-bigha Lyallpur Fruit Farm on Abohar-Sriganganagar highway to be made residential colony
Raj Sadosh
Abohar/Sriganganagar, February 23
The Lyallpur Fruit Farm that ‘kinnow king’ Kartar Singh Narula, the first recipient of the Udyan Pandit Award, had developed near Sadhuwali village on the Abohar-Sriganganagar highway in 1947, will soon become a thing of the past. A developer has purchased the 400 bigha farm to develop a residential colony.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, was keen to visit the Lyallpur Fruit Farm on February 28, 1963, but while he was on his way, he received the news about the death of the President Rajendra Prasad and rushed back to Delhi. He, however, on June 13, 1963, honoured Kartar Singh Narula with the Udyan Pandit Award for growing the best quality of citrus fruit.
Indira Gandhi had also visited the farms along with former Rajasthan Chief Minister Mohan Lal Sukhadia, and she too was impressed with the labour put in by the family.
Narula was born on December 22, 1922 in Lyallpur. He had come to Sriganganagar in 1939, when the family purchased a desert land from Justice Sir Shadi Lal of the Punjab High Court and others at Rs 8,250 per murabba (a measurement for land). In 1946, he completed a one-year vernacular course from Government College of Agriculture, Lyallpur, and attained the certificate signed by Rai Bahadur Jai Chand Luthra.
The family started a citrus fruit plantation in 1952. He was the first to grow mangoes in the region in 1958.
Jawaharlal Nehru had brought four plants of kinnow from Pakistan in 1962. Two plants were put at Pusa Institute, New Delhi, two at the botanical garden, Lucknow. Narula had collected some buds of these plants in 1963. Kinnow plants started giving fruits in 1966 at the Lyallpur Fruit Farm. MS Randhawa, then Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, had also visited the farms.
Quality citrus fruit
- Lyallpur Fruit Farm was set up by Kartar Singh Narula near Sadhuwali village in 1947
- Late PM Jawaharlal Nehru visited the fruit farm on June 13, 1963, and honoured Narula with Udyan Pandit Award
