Ajay Bhatt writes to Defence Minister Rajnath on closure of DIBER, Haldwani
Ajay Bhatt writes to Defence Minister Rajnath on closure of DIBER, Haldwani
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, March 25
Ajay Bhatt, Nainital MP in Lok Sabha and former MoS for Defence, has requested Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to allay the increasing fears of people of his constituency and Uttarakhand, regarding the proposed move to shut down the Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research( DIBER) situated at Haldwani and concerned laboratories spread in interior region at Indo-China border.
The letter has said that these research laboratories which did commendable work in the past are gradually being closed as only a few employees have been left in these laboratories presently.
The former MoD has said that he has summited a letter to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his short visit to Haldwani last week, that the talks of attaching DIBER labs at Haldwani to Defence institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) situated at Timarpur, Delhi, will not only affect the interests of farmers, local unemployed youth and traders of Himalayan region but will also affect the academic ventures of internship, of research fellows such JRF, SRF studies of educated talents of the region. “The shifting of laboratories will also affect local farmers in the high Himalayan region by depriving the local farmers from precious agricultural advice that they were receiving from DARL scientists working in these laboratories, said Ajay Bhatt, the Nainital MP. The DARL laboraties in 2008 were converted to Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research (DIBER) mainly concentrating on bio fuel research.
According to Bhatt, after talking to several retired officials of Defence Research Agricultural Laboratories (DARL) under DRDO, he came to know that the need of agricultural laboratories was felt after 1962 war with China, to increase the grains and vegetable production in the border region to make the troops deputed there self- sufficient from food supply point of view. “The laboratories of DARL were spread in Almora, Haldwani, Pithoragarh., Auli and Harshil in Uttarakhand where the work of research on how to get more production in local terrains was going on,” said the Nainital MP.
Ajay Bhatt in his letter that, the DIPAS laboratories at Timarpur Delhi, be shifted to interior border regions of Pithoragarh, Auli, and Harshil, for it could study of physiology of people of border region.
