Himalayan Times (1956)

February 12, 1956 Jfimnlagsm tLimcn

DR. AHMED INAUGURATES THE
10TH PEDONG LIVE-STOCK EXHIBITION

Kalimpong,

Dr. R. Ahmed, Minis,
ter for Agriculture & Ani-
mal Husbandry, Govt, of
West Bengal, opened the
10th Annual Agricultural
& livestock Exhibition at
Pedong on 7th inst ami,
dst a large gathering of
local cultivators and visi-
tors from far & near.
Rai Bahadur T. D. Den-
sappa, Chief Secretary,
Government of Sikkim
and Dr K.N. Narasingham,
Director of Agriculturet
Sikkim were also present.

After hoisting of the
national flag and blessing
by Lamas an address of
welcome was presented
to Dr. Ahmed Besides
a few other things the
main demands made in the
welcome address whs im-
provement of water supply
and education at Pedohg.

Replying to tiSe wel-
come address Dr. Ahmed
said that the government
were paying special atten-
tion to ameliorate the
conditions of the hill peo-
ple of l'arjeeling which
was evident from the
fact that considering the
peculiar agricultural prob-
lems of the hills, the
ceiling of 25 acres of land
which a tenant could re-
tain under the Estate

February 10

Acquisition Act had been
relaxed in the hill por-
tions of the district of
Darjeeling. He said that
Pedong had a problem of
water supply which he
hoped would be solved in
the near future. The
local authorities he said,
were doing their best to
find out the necessary
funds from various sour-
ces. But he pointed out
that the looal people
should also contribute
something in the shape
of labour etc. to imple-
ment the scheme. He
emphasised that in build-
ing a New India, the
public had as much of
responsibility as the go-
vernment. He also pointed
out that there was very
little land to provide the
people in the hills and
that whatever- -Utad-—K>afl-
available, it was in the
remote and difiicu t parts
of the district where the
people did not want to
go and settle. As soon
as these places will be
connected with the main
roads the people would
certainly like to go and
settle there.

He pointed out that
Darjeeling had lot of
possibilities for improving

Three

the economic conditions
of the hill people and
solving the unemployment
problem. He oited the
example of Darjeeling
orange which was abun-
dantly grown in Darjee-
ling. But all of them
could not be exported
outside for difficult com-
munication and other rea-
sons. Like orange he
said, there were many
other produce in the hills
which if the people could
form themselves into co- .„
operative societies and
made use of them in
various ways for mar-
keting outside, would fetch
good income for themsel-
ves. He said that the
hills were very suitable
for pig breeding which
oould fetch good income
to the local people if
they could pay special
attention in that line. He in-
formed the gathering that
the government was doing
its best for the improve-
ment of live-stock in the
hills and as soon as the

—work of artificial inSsis:-

nation was started in the
district, cattle breed would
improve and the milk
yield would also go up.
This scheme, he said would
be started with the fertile
seeds of the Jersey bulls.

He said that in the
district of Darjeeling no
charge was made for the
protection of plants and
(Continued at page 9