Keen to boost fruits cultivation, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday announced releasing `8 crore for setting up litchi and pear estate in the State.
After meeting litchi, pear and guava growers, the Chief Minister asked the agriculture department to expedite the work to set up these estates which would be equipped with ultra modern laboratory, state-of-the art nursery and a pack house facility to ensure grading and packing of litchi and pear.
Badal said that all efforts must be made to ensure that these estates were functional at the earliest so that farmers of the state could be benefited from it.
likewise, he also gave nod for establishing a litchi sub estate in Gurdaspur district for encouraging the farmers to adopt litchi cultivation.
In another significant decision, the Chief Minister asked the Punjab State Power Corporation limited
(PSPCl) to make concerted efforts to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the litchi, peer and guava cultivators during the months of April, May and June.
He directed the PSPCl to ensure regular power supply for atleast 10-15 hours as required by the cultivators during these months.
Acceding to the demand of litchi cultivators, the Chief Minister promised to raise the issue of providing two 'special bogeys' daily in Jammu bound trains towards Mumbai and Pune from Pathankot, with the Railways Minister.
He said this would curtail the transport cost of litchi cultivators to transit their produce to Mumbai and Pune, which were big markets for it.