Haryana for joint ventures with Uttaranchal

Bazpur, Uttranchal, Aug 7 (UNI) Haryana and Uttaranchal would undertake joint venture projects in areas of mutual interest like power generation, agriculture, education and technical education.

Haryana was already buying power from Uttaranchal and the possibility to set up a joint venture hydel power projects would be explored, Bhupendra Singh Hunda told mediapersons here.

He said that similar possibilities could be explored in the area of agriculture as the Vice Chancellor of G B Pant University of Agricultural and Technology had given seeds and literature on agriculture to the Haryana agriculture department. The CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar too was known for its contribution to the development of agriculture, he added.

He said that such mutual cooperation would be in the larger interest of the nation as joint ventures would improve technical education and reduce unemployment.

When asked to comment on the issue of rapid industrialisation which might reduce area under agriculture, Mr Hooda said that both agriculture and industry were equally important for development. The nation today was not only self sufficient, but also exporting foodgrains, he pointed out.

Industrialisation was equally necessary and there should be balanced development of both agriculture and industry, he opined.

The Haryana government has been laying stress on diversification of crops and motivating the farmers to abandon the wheat-rice cycle so as to enable them increase their income, he added.

He said that the Central Government had introduced some ambitious programmes like National Horiculture Mission to accelerate the pace of development in specific areas. Similarly, national programmes in rural electrification and healthy sector had been introduced.

He said that his government was providing facilities in rural areas at par with those in urban areas to check migration from rural to urban areas.

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