The Animal Husbandry department has placed under suspension 3 officers on account of absenteeism indulged in by the staff of Mattewara Animal Husbandry farm besides negligence in care of animals, heaps of garbage strewn around and on the basis of a report about shortcomings in the stock register. This follows the sudden visit of the Animal Husbandry Minister, Punjab, Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu on 13th November to the farm.Disclosing more, Mr. Sidhu said that he had conducted the surprise check of the farm on the basis of a confidential information that officers deputed at the mattewara farm under Animal Husbandry department, are indulging in illegal selling of the animals. He further said that he found ample shortcomings in the management of the farm and constituted a 3 member committee of the department to carry out a thorough technical probe.The minister also said that the said committee visited the farm on the 14th of November and minutely inspected the works as well as the functioning of various sections. The probe brought out the absenteeism indulged in by the staff of the farm on a large scale apart from gross wrongdoings in the stock register and heaps of garbage strewn around. During the stock checking, it was found that 80 goats of varying age groups are registered in the record where as the checking brought out this number to be 105. Similarly, the Sheep Breed farm stock was verified too as per which there were 327 sheeps of different age groups whereas 396 big and small sheeps were actually found.
On the basis of the probe report submitted to the government by the Director, Animal Husbandry department, Punjab, 3 officers namely Deputy Director Mattewara Farm Dr. N. K. Sharma, Veterinary Officer Mattewara Farm Dr. Rajiv Nanda along with Veterinary Inspector Darshan Singh were suspended on the grounds of negligence in duty.The Director said that the minister has made it absolutely clear that no negligence towards discharge of official duty in the department would be allowed. Any officer or an employee found guilty of any wrongdoing would face strict legal action. He further said that such sudden checks by the department would continue in the future too and the state level special probe committees constituted for the purpose would visit all the districts.It is also worth noting that the minister has exhorted the farmers to adopt Animal Husbandry, Dairy Farming and Fisheries as the allied occupations regarding which many state of the art projects are also under process.On the occasion, Political Secretary to the minister -Mr. Harkesh Chand Sharma and other officers were also present.