BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) on Monday resolved to appeal the State government to defer the decision for dismantling of the seeds processing plant at Sambalpur to facilitate the Samaleswari temple beautification programme.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors of the State-owned corporation following an express order of the Sambalpur Collector Subham Saxena for relocating the seeds processing plant to a new location Nuakhurigaon near Sason by October 15 which was reported by TNIE on Monday.
The meeting decided to apprise the operational difficulties the corporation will face to the Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo and Agriculture Secretary S K Vashishth.
“As harvesting of kharif paddy is expected from the first week of November, relocation of the seed processing plant to another place in such a short notice would not be possible. The meeting decided to request the government to put the shifting order on hold till the paddy seeds of the current kharif season are processed,” said Ashok Baral who represents the farmers in the corporation board. The meeting further decided to ask for a piece of land in Sambalpur for establishment of the the corporation office for the convenience of the farmers.
Shifting the officer to a far away place would cause much inconvenience to the farmer members registered with the corporation. The third proposal approved at the meeting was that OSSC will request the government to bear the entire cost for relocation of the seed processing plant and construction of office building and staff quarters.
Drawing the attention of Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra and Agriculture Production Commissioner RK Sharma to the matter, Baral said the town planning officer of the Sambalpur Development Authority today asked the Seed Production and Marketing Officer of OSSC posted at Sambalpur to go scouting for a suitable site for the corporation. In a similar move, the State government on Monday asked the State Seeds Corporation to hand over its land in Cuttack city for expansion of the SCB Medical College and Hospital.