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Architects of Green Revolution left in the lurch

CHANDIGARH: A piquant situation has developed in Punjab, where after spending a lifetime in laboratories, classrooms, technical workshops and research farms for developing new technologies to ensure the nation’s food security, at least 2,700 superannuated employees of Punjab Agricultural University have been left to fend for themselves, with the authorities suddenly discontinuing their pension and all other benefits.

The victims include some top scientists who played a vital role in the much talked about Green Revolution. They have been running pillar to post since February this year, when all payments to them were stopped. Of the nearly 2,700 retirees of the University, 600 are scientists, 300 gazetted non-teaching staff including top technical hands, and the rest Class-IV employees, according to the president of the Confederation of PAU Pensioners’ Association, I.K. Garg.

Former president of the PAU Teachers’ Association, Hari Brar, former Director of Extension Education, Surjit Singh Gill, and former Head of the Journalism, Languages and Culture Department, Amarjit Singh, supported Dr. Garg while putting forward their plight before reporters here on Saturday. They pointed out that the State Government pays pensions to nearly five lakh people but refuses to provide Rs. 35 crore for the PAU retirees.

The senior scientists and teachers said they had approached every authority from the President of the country downward, but to no avail. They said that during their last meeting Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had ordered the release of Rs. 20 crore, but when the funds arrived, the University was informed that the amount was for planned expenditure and could not be used for making payment of pensions.

The leaders of the Confederation claim that the University authorities have been asked to make the payment of pensions either from their own resources or sell off property to create a fund that could service this requirement. However, they point out that the PAU was never compensated in the past when the State Government took away 170 acres of land where the University had set up a sugarcane research farm in Jalandhar district, transferred 1,250 out of its 2,500-acre experimental farm land to a private company in Ladhowal near Ludhiana.

They say that in 1991 they had been promised pension benefits as provided by the Punjab Government for which they surrendered huge amounts from the Contributory Provident Fund (CPF), but the promise was not kept.

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