Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 10: Principal Secretary Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal and Sheep Husbandry Departments, Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired a State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC) meeting of Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) here today.
The committee approved an annual action plan worth Rs 75 crore for the holistic development of horticulture sector in Jammu and Kashmir for the year 2020-21.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Sheetal Nanda (Member); Director Agriculture Kashmir, Aijaz Altaf Andrabi (Member), Director Horticulture Kashmir, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat (Member Secretary); Director Horticulture (P&M), Imam Din (Member) and several other member representatives from Finance, Agriculture Production, Forest, PD&MD, I&C, Cooperatives and Floriculture Departments. Representatives from SKUAST-K and SKUAST-J were also present
The Principal Secretary asked the concerned departments that they should bring in the year-wise outcome oriented picture before the committee. He remarked that superficially the figures have no relevance if these are not correlated with the outcome for corresponding periods.
Navin, who chairs this committee, directed the concerned departments to enhance their expenditure making capacity without compromising with the quality of results. He stressed that this mission is an umbrella development program taking in its ambit every aspect of horticultural development in J&K. He emphasized that the results should be visible on ground and benefits should reach to ground level farmers.
Chairman SLEC directed the concerned executing agencies to expedite the establishment of Centre of Excellence, Udheywalla Jammu, and ensure that available funds are utilized immediately against the works already done.
Secretary RD&PR asked the officers to integrate several of the components under single head so that there is no confusion in their relevance vis-à-vis this project. She maintained that this committee should act as monitoring and guiding tool for ensuring obtaining of timely outcomes on expected lines.
This mission as explained include components like establishment of new gardens, organic farming, creation of water resources, import of plant material, centre of excellence for horticulture, post-harvest management, HR management, food processing etc.
The SLEC also reviewed progress made under previous plan and approved new action plan for 2020-21. It further sanctioned DPRs in favour of establishment of new CA stores, assistance for establishment of one banana ripening chamber and acquiring of refrigerated trucks by private partners.
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