Four farmers from the districts of Koraput, Jagatsinghpur, and Puri have reportedly been selected to attend the expo, according to sources.
Three senior IAS officers from Odisha are departing for a seven-day journey to attend the International Horticulture Exhibition: Floriade Expo 2022, which will begin on September 8 in the Netherlands. The decision to exclude four prosperous farmers from the tour, however, has drawn criticism from all quarters.
Four farmers from the districts of Koraput, Jagatsinghpur, and Puri have reportedly been selected to attend the expo, according to sources. However, they were unable to obtain a visa, therefore they were unable to attend the horticultural expo. Because the Agriculture Department has not prepared their visas, they are unable to travel overseas. In contrast, three senior bureaucrats will participate in the event that enraged farmers.
Sanjiv Kumar Chadha, Rohit Kumar Lenka, and Sanjib Chopra are three bureaucrats who will be present at the expo. The administrative quota made it easy for the officials to obtain visas, while the farmers had trouble obtaining visas despite turning in their passports on time.
The agriculture department is said to have failed to grant the chosen farmers visas despite the fact that they had submitted their passports well in advance of the deadline.
It should be noted that in 1996–1997, administrators travelled abroad to attend a farming-related expo without inviting farmers along. Ranendra Pratap Swain, who is currently the agricultural minister, harshly criticised the state government when he was in the opposition party.
Asish Mohanty, a farmer from Jagatsinghpur, claimed, “Our passports were taken for visa processing.
We learned at the last minute that the processing of the visas had not been completed.
We blew the opportunity. Undoubtedly, it was a fantastic chance to learn and experiment with new concepts.
“My Aadhaar card and passport were confiscated by the government personnel for visa processing,” stated Murali Adhikari of Koraput. After returning from the Netherlands, I couldn’t wait to attend the exhibition and put those ideas into practise in my own state. My expectations, though, have been dashed.
(Source: News Agent)
Prasanta Patnaik