Strawberry farming: Crop projects come a cropper

When a complaint was filed with the Punjab State Information Commission, the corporation refused to accept the projects as theirs. When showed printouts from their website and copies of news items in which it had flaunted the project, the respondent submitted that the work was in fact undertaken by Pagrexco. CIC RI Singh then said that the RTI application should have been transferred to Pagrexco.

The public information officer of Pagrexco, who came for the next hearing, agreed to give information about olive project, but added that they had handed over the strawberry plantations to the horticulture council so it was their responsibility to provide information. The CIC asked him to seek information from the Council and provide it. Meanwhile, PIO of the council was also summoned.

The representative of the Council stated that they did not have information as they had inherited strawberry plants from Pagrexco. However, after directions from the commission, the Council provided information, but added that some part of it was held by the company that imported the plants. The commission then asked the council to submit an affidavit to that effect.

Olive project: Launched, publicised, forgotten

While the strawberry project died sometime after inception, the olive cultivation project could never take off. As per information provided by the Pagrexco under the RTI Act, the project was conceived in 2008 and only groundwork was carried out. It admitted that corporation's general manager Pardeep Kumar Sharma undertook a trip to Israel on government expense to study olive plantation. A government team also visited Rajasthan. No farmer was involved in the project, Pagrexco said.

Notably, a couple of years ago, PAIC had announced to grow olives on 400 acres, and had selected Israeli company Indolive, which had set up olive orchards in Rajasthan for the project. Incidentally, for this project too land was identified at Ladhowal.

... contd.

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