UP council of agriculture Research (UPCAR) has demanded from the state government to set up agriculture commission and also ensure remunerative minimum support price for the agriculture produce.
The director general of the UPCAR Dr Rajendra Kumar said here on Wednesday that the state government should set up agriculture commission to look into the problem o f the farmers and suggest long terms corrective measures. He said the commission even with one year term should be set up by the government.
The DG regretted that the state government has either ignored or taken no action on the large number of recommendations made by the UPCAR for the improvement in the agriculture sector. He said in protest against the government indifference he had tendered his resignation but was persuaded by the chairman to withdraw. `` The state government tells us that your job is to give the recommendations and it’s our discretion whether to act or not’’, said the DG.
Regretting the delay in enactment of the “UP State agriculture university Bill 2014, the DG said the bill has suffered inordinate delay due to the indifference of the state bureaucracy and government. he said the “UP state agriculture universities bill 2014’ aims to promote training extension programme and research in agriculture sector. UPCAR, the apex body for coordinating the research and development among various state agriculture universities and also funding the development activities.
“We are a toothless organization with huge responsibilities but no authority to execute the work. If some university or the agriculture college funded by us fails to perform we can only refer the matter to the state government which in turn never takes any action’’, said the DG.
“A cursory analysis of the work done by the vice chancellors reveals that the career of the agriculture scientists is ruined even for small lapses while the bureaucrats goes scot free even after committing lapses of monumental scale. A bureaucrats takes important decisions in a closed room and they are endorsed at every level of the government even if they are not in the interest of the people and actually end up in harming the interest of the state’’, said Dr Rajendra Kumar.
lamenting the indifference of the bureaucracy towards the ``draft bill’ the DG said `` the first draft of the bill was drafted as per the recommendation of Dr Saroja Raman committee report and sent to the state government in 19956, the government decided to review the bill and set up one more committee. Another committee was set up by the government in 2010 and a revised `draft bill’ was sent to the government which returned the draft bill’’.
“In 2013 the Agriculture production commissioner set up high level task force to draft fresh bill. Fresh bill was vetted by the Indian council of agriculture research, Agriculture Science congress and all the vice chancellors of state agriculture universities and sent to the state government in October 2014. The principal secretary of the agriculture department is not willing to cede its powers to the agriculture scientists and adamant on maintaining the dominance of the bureaucracy on agriculture education and research. The fate of the bill is still hanging in balance’’, said the DG UPCAR.
He said the present law ``UP state agriculture and technology university act 1958 is 58 years old and most of its provision have turned archaic and needs immediate revision to make it relevant as the technology at all level of agriculture and farming has undergone a sea change. He said the `draft bill’ pending with the state government, if legislated will go a long way in improving the education standards in state agriculture universities and colleges and also give a boost to the agriculture research. Presently there are 4 agriculture universities in the state—Kanpur, Meerut, Faizadab and banda and one deemed university at Allahabad, one veterinary collage at Mathura, 37 agriculture colleges affiliated with non agriculture state universities and 14 institutions run by the Indian council of agriculture research.
