Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Farmers have smelled conspiracy behind state government's move to permit regular colleges to offer undergraduate agriculture courses from 2024-25 academic session.
The department of higher education had issued a notification recently in this regard. The decision has not gone down well with the farmers and students as they believe that the government was eying the acres of land attached to the agriculture colleges in the state.
PS (agriculture) Ashok barnwal though has clarified that the land of agriculture colleges will be utilised for research purposes.
In 2022, the students of agriculture college Indore had staged a protest against the state government's attempt to take away land from their institute for developing a 'city forest and oxygen zone'.
Even Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) had condemned the government's move to take land from the college, the only agriculture research facility in Malwa region.
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Kamal Singh Anjana said, 'It is a conspiracy of the state government to take over a huge chunk of land attached to agriculture colleges. Earlier, the same issue was raised when the government wanted to shift agriculture colleges in Indore. The farmers had protested then and moved court. Same issue had cropped up in Ujjain earlier.'
Agriculture Ankur Welfare Association Ranjeet Kisanvanshi said, 'We are going to knock the door of court citing the norms required for running agriculture colleges. Acres of land are attached with agriculture colleges and the government has issued notification that from 2024-25 academic session, the government will run agriculture undergraduate courses in regular colleges. This simply means that the government is eying the land of agriculture colleges.'
