Six months on, Karnal awaits farm equipment testing centre

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 12

For the past six months, industrialists dealing in agricultural implements are waiting for the testing centre in Uchani village to come up. The centre was announced by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on May 3 during ‘Samadhan Divas’ of the traders of Karnal and Kurukshetra, organised by Haryana Chamber of Commerce and other industrial associations.

The step was initiated by the government in a bid to provide relief to the agricultural implement industrialists as they have to rush to Hisar to get their implements tested. It is, as per the industrialists, a very difficult task for them due to the long distance as well as the long waiting list, ranging from six months to more than a year.

However, even as more than six months have elapsed, there appears to be no headway in the announcement so far.

The land for the project is yet to be earmarked by the Haryana State Industrialist Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC).

Karnal, having more than 100 organised and unorganised manufacturing units providing employment to more than 4,000 persons, is known as the hub of agricultural implements and it caters to around 50-60 per cent requirement of agricultural implements of the country. With an annual turnover of around Rs 1,500 crore, the Karnal industry has grabbed the global market with a client list of more than 100 countries, said Som Sachdeva, adviser, Karnal Agricultural Implement Manufacturers Association (KAIMA).

Karnal is manufacturing the latest agricultural implements, such as rotary tiller, power harrow, disc harrow, plough, sub-soiler, cultivator, disc plough, disc ridger, trailer, leveller, rotary cutter, zero till, post hole digger, tractor mounted sprayer, fertiliser spreader, reciprocating forage mower and sugarcane loader and others, he maintained.

“It is a long-awaited demand of the industrialists but despite the announcement made by the CM, nothing has been done so far,” he added.

Manoj Arora, president, Karnal HSIIDC Industrial Welfare Association, said the work on the CM’s announcement should be initiated with immediate effect.

Ramesh Aneja, member, KAIMA, said the facility should be provided to the industrialists at the earliest as they have to go to Hisar or Ludhiana to get the quality of the product tested, which was a difficult task.

Vineet Bhatia, Additional GM, HSIIDC, said after the finalisation of land the work on the project would commence.