When a Farm Manager’s Missionary Zeal Impressed a Chief Minister

INDIA NEEDS ROLE MODELS LIKE DR. NIRMAL SINGH GILL

During one of his so journeys in early sixties to New Delhi, the car by which Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon the then Chief Minister of Punjab (reputed to be the modern Architect of the State) had developed some engine trouble and the CM’s convoy came to a sudden halt. While the Driver was attending to set right the minor snag, Kairon stepped out and spotted a State Govt. Agriculture Farm near by. He entered the Farm and spotted a farm worker wearing a khaki knicker mulching the plants with a hand-hoe intended to conserve the sub-soil moisture, aerate the soil at the root zone and remove the weeds. He had immediately recognized the Chief Minister and paid obeisance and greeted him. The CM asked him to call the Officer-in-Charge of the Farm for which the humble worker introduced himself with all humility as Nirmal Singh Gill, an Agriculture Graduate as the Manager of the Farm. It is to the credit of the Farm Manager that he was unaware of the CM’s itinerary and followed his own daily schedule. The CM was taken aback by surprise and very much impressed by his simplicity, devotion to duty, missionary zeal and enthusiasm. The CM made inquisitive enquiries about his native place, academic attainments, length of service etc. After reaching the National Capital, he met the Union Agriculture Minister and requested him to explore the earliest opportunity to send Mr N.S. Gill to US for higher studies. Thus, he was granted a US Fellowship for his M.S. in Purdue University where he had excelled in his studies and established a brilliant academic record. After his return to motherland, he was selected as AGM (QC) in NSC (A Govt. of India Undertaking). After a couple of years of distinguished service, he was awarded a Fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation and deputed to the State Agriculture College, Mississippi, US which is considered to be the Mecca of Seed Technology for higher studies leading to the award of a Ph.D. By the time, Dr N.S. Gill returned to the country and resumed his duty, there was unwieldy expansion of NSC with the opening of a number of Regional and Zonal Offices all over the country attaining the notoriety for corruption from top to bottom.

Dr Singh’s simplicity, Spartan character, sterling qualities of head and heart can be gauzed from the fact that he used to reach the Office by pedaling the distance by his old rickety bicycle from Kamal Cinema (Safdarjung Enclave) to the Aristocratic locality–South Extension-Part-II, New Delhi. He used to exhort the Technical Staff to desist from accepting the hospitality from contract seed growers to ensure no compromise over the quality of seeds procured by the Organisation. He used to lay stress on three vital principles to be followed in life- “Frank, Fair and Firm”. He used to come very heavily on staff involved in filing fake inspection reports carrying out ghost field inspections and on those found to have shown favouritism for a consideration or biased reports. He used to impress on the staff to claim only actual the mode of journey/class of travel to curb the tendency of submitting inflated/false T.A. bills as lot of travel is involved into by the Technical Staff. Dr Gill has done extensive research work on the vigour of various seeds especially on oilseeds and evolved yardsticks for determining the vigour rate of seeds.

Dr Singh was vexed up with too much political interference and rampant corruption in the Organisation. He was not given a free hand to set right the worsened situation. In frustration, he had resigned from NSC and left for US for good in 1971. The tragic events leading to his emigration to US had been prominently published in the popular tabloid “BLITZ” edited by R.K. Karanjia at that time.

S. Srinivasa Rao, M.Sc.(Ag.)

E-mail:- samsrirao@gmail.com

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