Badal writes to prime minister for setting up Borlaug Institute

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the prime minister Manmohan Singh to set up the proposed 'Borlaug Institute for South Asia' at Ladhowal.
    
In a letter to the prime minister, Badal said that Nobel laureate and father of the Green revolution Dr Norman E Borlaug was closely associated with Punjab, especially Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
  
"Also, Punjab is at the forefront of food grain production in the country and therefore, it would be appropriate if the proposed institute in the memory of Borlaug is established at Ladhowal in the vicinity of Ludhiana city and in close proximity to the Punjab Agricultural University for this purpose," Badal wrote, according to an official release here today.
  
He said the state is willing to provide free land at Ladhowal for setting up the institute.
  
Badal further said that soon after the death of Dr Borlaug last year, he had written to the Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar seeking the establishment of a Wheat Research Center in his name in the state.
 
"We have now received a response from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that the ministry of agriculture had approved a proposal submitted by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center to establish a Borlaug Institute for South Asia in the country and the various states had been asked for their interest in facilitating the establishment of this institute," Badal said.