By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 5 Mar: The three-day Spring Festival, Vasantotsav-2023, held at the Raj Bhawan, here, concluded today with the distribution of prizes to the winners by Governor Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd). Cabinet Ministers Satpal Maharaj and Ganesh Joshi were also present at the time of distribution of prizes and certificates of appreciation.
During the three day festival, Governor Singh remained very proactive. While, on the first day, he inaugurated the festival along with the Chief Minister, he also visited almost every stall and display put up at the Flower Show and Spring Festival. He also mingled with the children participating in the painting competition and the rangoli competition on the first day. On the second day, too, he visited the stalls and spoke in detail with officials of Horticulture Department who had organised the event. He also visited the auditorium where an art exhibition had been put up.
Today, the Governor handed over prizes and certificates of appreciation to the winners and the officials involved in organising the Spring Festival. He also honoured the judges who had judged the competition in various categories.
On the occasion, the Governor said that this year the enthusiasm and participation of the people in the flower show was worth seeing. He said that there was an atmosphere of joy and happiness in the Raj Bhavan during these three days. The Governor said that moving ahead with the mantra of success through through flower cultivation. Dehradun should be made the flower capital and Uttarakhand, the flower state. He said that it should be the endeavour of all concerned that Uttarakhand meets the demand for flowers from all over India. The Governor said that the combined efforts of the Horticulture Department and the farmers of the state have given a commercial form to flower production. Taking full advantage of the existing opportunities for flower production in the state and the schemes run by the Horticulture Department, it will be taken to new heights of development by the flower growers, which will help in the expected increase in their income.
Singh stressed that prosperity and happiness will come in Uttarakhand from Agriculture, Horticulture and Tourism sectors. These sectors have the potential to bring about an economic revolution by increasing the output and the production. The crops of Uttarakhand are like priceless heritage, which is the duty of everyone concerned to preserve and promote for the coming generations. Along with organic farming, there is also a need to promote natural farming in the state so that people can get healthy food on their plate.
The Governor congratulated all the winners, participants and the main organisers of the exhibition, the Horticulture Department, Culture Department and others.
Cabinet Minister Satpal Maharaj said that Uttarakhand has obtained a unique boon from nature. He said that Uttarakhand is home to a large diversity of medicinal plants and even Hanuman had to come to Uttarakhand and carry Sanjeevani herb from here to save Laxman’s life. He said that there is a huge demand for life-giving medicinal herbs and for honey, ghee and other products in the country and abroad. These products from the hills were very unique as the cows eat lot of medicinal herbs making the ghee from the hills to be of very high quality with lots of medicinal value.
Similarly, the bees also collect nectar from medicinal herbs and the honey so produced has unique medicinal properties. He said that through such events, farmers get an opportunity to showcase their products as well as market them.
Agriculture and Horticulture Minister Ganesh Joshi said that there has been a record participation of people in this Vasantotsav-2023. In the coming times, this festival would take an even grander form. He claimed that the government is establishing new dimensions in the field of agriculture and horticulture. He said that, by 2025, Uttarakhand Horticulture would double production in the field of flower cultivation, which will also help in stopping migration. On this occasion, he gave information about several departmental schemes.
Horticulture Director Dr HS Baweja listed the achievements of the horticulture department over the past one year and claimed that the horticulture sector has the biggest potential to transform the lives of the youth in the hills.
During the three days of Vasantotsav, which has become a popular cultural event, more than 1.5 lakh visitors enjoyed the natural beauty of flowers and other programmes. IIT Roorkee got this year’s Running Trophy at Vasantotsav-2023. It also received awards in 13 categories, ONGC in 10 categories, Uttarakhand Forest Department in 3 categories and BHEL in 2 categories. As many as 186 first, second and third prizes were distributed in 62 sub-categories of 16 categories. On the concluding day, the Governor also inaugurated the digital app created by the Department of Horticulture and Food Processing in collaboration with TI expert Kamal Kant Sharma. The main objective of this app is to make all the organic farmers establish direct communication with the consumers for the sale of their products.
First lady Gurmit Kaur, Padma Shri awrdee Premchandra Sharma, MLA, Purola, Durgeshwar Lal, Secretary to Governor Ravinath Raman, Additional Secretary Ranveer Singh Chauhan, Director, Agriculture, Gauri Shankar, Joint Director Dr Ratan Kumar, Dr Suresh Ram, Dr Brijesh Gupta, many dignitaries, public representatives and a large number of visitors were also present at the exhibition.
There were 698 participants in cut flower (traditional) competition, 191 participants in cut flower (non-traditional) category, 22 in potted plant category including large and small private nurseries, hobbyists and the central and state institutions, 42 in loose flower category, 17 in potted plant (non-flower) category, 13 in Cactus and Succulent Category, 27 entries in Hanging Pot Category, 22 in On Spot Photography, 17 in Lawn Category, 8 in Fresh Petal Rangoli while 946 persons participated in the Painting competition. Some new categories were introduced this year at the competition. Among those, there are 12 entries in the category of rooftop vegetable production , 23 entries in the Bonsai category, 7 in the terrarium category and 33 in the honey category. A total of 2076 entries were seen in a total of 62 subcategories of 16 categories.
A total of 413 stalls were set up by government and private institutions/individuals at the Raj Bhavan, in which various government institutions displayed their activities at 18 stalls and 395 business establishments/self-help groups and nurseries also put up their stalls. Distributers of tools, equipment, and machinery related to agriculture and horticulture and products such as seeds, biofertilisers, organic pesticides and fungicides also displayed their goods. Wheel chair facility was also made available by the Red Cross Society for the help of disabled people.
