Vegetables and fruits are cold stored firstly to preserve them climatically and secondly to market them profitably. It is a recognized agro-industrial activity. Cold storing green vegetables/fruits etc. is more needed in summer zone where the climate is hot or humid. Even in cold countries all over the world, green stuff is always put in cold store and then only it retains its freshness and food value. It is highly profitable for small scale farmers who cannot afford to have their private cold stores. At the same time, eatables put in cold store can be marketed when it is profitable for the farmers.
Construction of cold storage unit at Champari, Chenani was approved under District plan scheme by the District Development Board Udhampur in the year 2004-05 at a cost of 1.70 crore rupees. During the intervening ten years files pertaining to this project have been shuttling between various offices, like Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Chief Agriculture Officer Udhampur, Executive Engineer Udhampur, Superintending Engineer PWD, Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir State Agro Industries Development Corporation and the Director Finance Jammu and Kashmir Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited. The journey of this project took nearly ten years and finally landed in the hands of the CAG, which delivered the verdict that after more than nine years of red tape, the project is nowhere near completion and the expenditure of 1.70 crore rupees has gone down the drain. It is so because the plant and the machine have not been set up and the structure raised remains unused. That is what the CAG means by saying that the expenditure of Rs 1.70 crore has been unfruitful.
This in brief is the tale of a project that has ended up in fiasco. The structure has been raised but the buck of installation of the plant and machinery is passed on from one office to another. Where is the planning, where is time frame and where is the delivery? Who will answer these questions?” This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many developmental projects that have met almost the same fate or that are about to meet the same fate. We have been highlighting the discrepancies detected by the CAG in a number of projects and functionality of various administrative departments. If the CAG had not discovered the fate of the project, it would have passed on to oblivion and no blade of grass would have moved. The Director Agriculture Jammu and Chief Agriculture Officer Udhampur had not monitored the execution of project for its timely and purposeful completion.
In final analysis, the dilly-dallying attitude of the agencies through which the entire project had to pass, leads to the disadvantage of the farmers and peasants. If the projects meant to bring them advantage are treated like this, the purpose of the same stands defeated. We, therefore, make a fervent appeal to the Minister of the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture to mount attention to this irresponsible and careless attitude of the agencies concerned and see to it that the cold storage project is completed in Chenani within the shortest possible time.
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