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| Rs 6 cr spent on salaries in 18 yrs, revenue Rs 25 lakh! | | Horticulture in shambles- II | | Early Times Report
budgam, Apr 27: The Horticulture department that claims to be providing lot of assistance, subsidy and support to orchardists across J&K has messed up its own assets, with the result the orchards and fruit plant nurseries of the department are turning out to be white elephants on the state exchequer.
The orchards, which could have fetched crores of rupees as revenue to the state, are not even able to generate salaries of the officials manning these orchards.
After exposing the messed up situation in horticulture sector in Jammu division, the situation in Kashmir valley is also not good. Sources say that officials of the department who are posted at various fruit orchards/nurseries are not doing their job as per the satisfaction. On one hand experts and officers of the department claim that they are handholding apple growers and other orchardists, but when one goes and visits the assets and orchards of this department, they can be found in shambles.
Early Times has accessed documents that reveal official mismanagement in District Horticulture Office Budgam. The department of Horticulture, according to reliable sources, has spent around Rs 6 crore on the salary of its 10 member staff posted in its fruit plant nursery/orchard at Gopalpora village in last 18 years, and inspite of spending such a huge amount on salaries of its employees, the department has earned mere Rs 20 to 25 lakh revenue in all these years
Details available with Early Times reveal that 83 kanal fruit plant nursery-cum-orchard at Gopalpora in central Kashmir's Budgam is a white elep Aamdani atthani kharcha rupaiyaa
Sources in Horticulture department told Early Times that there are 10 employees posted at Gopalpora, Budgam nursery cum orchard which includes one Senior Technician, 2 Horticulture Technicians (Grade II & IV), 3 Gardeners and 1 Chowkidar. The monthly salary of these employees amounts to Rs 4 lakhs at an average and every year government spends Rs 40 lakh plus on the salary of these employees, but the desired results are not obtained at all.
"We have a private fruit nursery in Chattergam village which is run by a person who is not a trained horticulture expert. This man makes huge revenue from few kanals of land that has been developed into a nursery. Similarly apple or pear orchardists on an average earn Rs 1 lakh per kanal. Had this 83 kanal land been outsourced to some ordinary apple grower he would have generated more than 80 lakhs revenue every year on an average, but the so called experts in horticulture have destroyed the Gopalpora nursery/orchard and authorities have not taken notice of this. How can these so called experts come and guide farmers when their own house is not in order. I demand that it is better to outsource such orchards and nurseries to private orchardists especially young men or women," said Abdul Gani Dar an apple grower from Chadoora. |
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