Chandigarh, Feb 28:

Haryana Governor, Mr. Satyadeo Narain Arya said that there is immense possibilities of new inventions and research in the field of agriculture sector in Haryana, thus the scientists are required to lay more focus on this area.

The Governor was addressing the gathering after conferring Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award and Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award on scientists during a function organised on the occasion of National Science Day by Department of Science and Technology here today.

In this function, the scientists were honoured for doing notable work in the field of Science and Technology. During the function, Dr. Rajender Singh Verma was conferred with Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award and Dr. Sanjeev Kumar and Dr. Poonam Arora were conferred with Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award for the year 2017. Similarly, Dr. Bakshi Ram was conferred with Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award and Dr. Surender Singh and Dr. Rajender Singh were conferred with Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award for the year 2018.

Mr. Arya said that in order to promote science in Haryana, the State Government has initiated many schemes and awards. Students participating in various national and international competitions are honoured and students, who win medal at International Science Olympiad, are being given a cash prize of Lakhs of Rupees. Apart from this, incentive money of up to Rs 6,000 per month is being given to encourage meritorious students of science education. Similarly, the students engaged in research works in different universities are also being given Rs 21,000 as fellowship.

Mr. Arya said that the Former Prime Minister, late Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji gave the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan. He said that Haryana’s daughter, Kalpana Chawla reached the space and made the state and the country proud in the world. He said that Nobel laureates, C V Raman, Dr. Hargobind Khurana, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Venkatraman Ramakrishna made the country proud in the field of Science. National Science Day is celebrated in India every year on February 28, to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir C V Raman.

The Governor congratulated all the scientists who received the award and said that besides new research and innovations in the field of Science, the younger generation should also be inspired and encourage towards Science.

Haryana Chief Secretary, Mr D.S.Dhesi said that Haryana has created a special identity for itself in the field of Science. Although new researches have been carried out in various areas, due to encouragement from the state government but the problem of pollution still remains a challenge. To overcome this challenge, the scientist would have to work more in this area and for this, the state government is completely with them.

Those present included Additional Chief Secretary, Science and Technology Department, Mr Amit Jha, Governor’s Secretary, Mr Vijay Singh Dahiya, Member of Haryana Public Service Commission, Dr Kulbir Chhikara and Director, Science & Technology, Mr Rajiv Rattan.