Chandigarh, November 15
Expressing concern over the deepening crisis on Punjab’s agriculture, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan blaming the Congress and its leaders for it said that even in the last over four-and-a-half-years; the Congress has put the agriculture of Punjab in danger by not strengthening the agriculture department of the state.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Monday, Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that there was a shortage of about 450-500 Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) doctors in the Agriculture Department of Punjab. These ADOs, who are called field officers, first of all save the crop from the ill-effects on farmers, their families along with Punjab’s agriculture. But the SAD-BJP and the Congress government have not filled the posts lying vacant in the Agriculture Department since 2012. He said that due to this neglect of the Punjab government, about 20 lakh families of the farmers are affected, whose main source of income and the provision for two-time meal is through agriculture.
Sandhwan said that there are about 934 field doctors in the Agriculture Department and out of these; about 450-500 posts are lying vacant. He said that the Punjab government issued advertisements for 141 posts for ADOs in the year 2017 and filled them in the year 2018 and then again in the year 2020, advertisements were issued for 141 posts and were filled in the year 2021. But still about 450-500 posts of ADO are lying vacant. He said that the surprising thing is that these posts have also been approved, despite this; the Congress government is neither issuing advertisements related to these vacant posts nor is making any effort to save the state’s agriculture.
The AAP leader further said that earlier, the doctors working on about 100 posts of Agriculture Development Officer were promoted to the post of Block Officer. Due to this, the number of vacant posts of ADO field officers, which were to be filled, has now increased to about 100. Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that neglect of the Agriculture Department by the Congress government clearly means cheating the families of the Punjab farmers and ending the agriculture. He said that not only this, five posts of Joint Director are also vacant in Punjab, due to which the situation is like the Congress has a legless government.
Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that according to a study there should be an ADO behind 400 farmers’ families but due to acute shortage of ADOs, at present there is not even an ADO doctor behind 2,000 farmers’ families. Due to this there is a shortage of Agriculture Development Officers in almost all the districts of Doaba belt of Punjab. He said that this negligence and laxity of the Congress government can be gauged from the fact that 400 posts of assistant sub-inspectors are also lying vacant in the Agriculture Department.
These assistant sub-inspectors are the one who, along with the Agriculture Development Officers, are on the front line in efforts to prevent farmers and agriculture from getting affected on every front. Sandhwan said that the farmers’ families of the districts of Malwa belt of Punjab had to pay for this plight of the agriculture department by facing the wrath of pink bollworm infestation. The Aam Aadmi Party has demanded from the Channi government to revive the agriculture-oriented state of Punjab; by filling all the vacant posts of the Agriculture Department and to give proper compensation to the farmers’ families affected by pink bollworm and other ill effects at the earliest.
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