Jhapa, August 30:

A 52-hector Agriculture Farm constructed in assistance with Asian Development Bank (ADB) at Shivgunj VDC of Jhapa twenty-five years ago has not been operated properly till date.

The land worth around Rs 14 million belonging to Seed Production and Dairy Development Committee of the Farm at Chandradangi of Shivgunj and its 22 buildings have also been useless till date.

The then Kankai Irrigation Projected had handed over the buildings to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives some 36 years ago for the use of the Farm. The equipments, including tunnel, tractor’s plough and many other at the office premises have been left

unattended for.

The Farm staff also have no work to do. When journalists contacted the office, Dev Chandra Shah, acting chief of the office was not present at his office. Bharat Bhattarai, an office assistant was sleeping in the residential building, Ratan Ray and Dhruba Subba, two junior staff, were also absent from the office. Three peons were on home leave.

“The Farm worth Rs 14 million has been wasted for no reason. The government has also stopped allocating budget to us,” office assistant Bhattarai said adding that it has not been used for the purpose it was established for.

Regional Agriculture Directorate has assigned Sanjaya Kumar Yadav, chief of Jhapa District Agriculture Development Office as the chief for the Farm office since mid-June. “There is even problem for us to go to the office, as the office is 35-km far from the district headquarters Chandragadhi,” Yadav said.

The office owns huge fields for producing seeds, parks and large ponds for fish farming in the land stretched to 52-hector.