Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 3: Alleging large scale bunglings in various schemes of Horticulture Department hundreds of JKNPP workers today held a massive demonstration outside the office of Director Horticulture and sought punitive action against certain officers of the department who had been indicted by the enquiry committee for having committed frauds and irregularities.
Speaking on the occasion Rajesh Padgotra, provincial president JKNPP accused the Horticulture Department of plundering the subsidies meant for poor orchardists in connivance with certain politicians and fake beneficiaries.
He said that huge funds are provided to the Horticulture Deptt. for providing incentives and subsidies to farmers, orchardists under various schemes including Green Houses, Horticulture Mission, Plantations, Vermi Compost Units, Farm Handling Units, Horticulture Mechanization, HMNEHS etc but regretted the said funds are siphoned off in the process and do not reach the deserving people.
He further accused the officers of Horticulture of shielding certain fake beneficiaries especially politicians and an MLA who have siphoned off huge subsidies of the Horticulture deptt. in collusion. Sham Lal Gorkha Vice President Panthers Trade Union further flayed the Horticulture Deptt. for violating the govt. orders regarding payment of incentives and relief amount to beneficiaries through Direct Bank Transfers (DBT) instead of cash, cheque or demand drafts.
Prominent among those who joined the protest included Purshotam Parihar, Neeraj Gupta, Anil Rakwal, Khajoor Singh, Inderpal, Shankar Chib, Bashir Ahmed beside others. |
