Integrity Score 405
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Continuing Chapter 12
I sent him to the Agricultural College, Lyallpur, for training in the production of fruit juices and canning of fruit. At the suggestion of Sardar Bahadur Lal Singh, Fruit Specialist, Government of Punjab, and with the help of Dr. Carter Speers of the Forman Christian College, Lahore, I ordered machinery from England for the purpose of installing a fruit canning factory at Pathankot.
The idea of starting such a concern came as the result of an incident that had happened earlier that year. Sir Joginder Singh, the Minister for Agriculture in the Punjab Government, made tall claims in a public speech about what the Government had done for the development of agriculture and horticulture in the Punjab. The Governor was in the chair. When I read the speech next morning in the Tribune, I at once wrote to the Governor telling him that the Minister and the fruit specialist had done nothing substantial to help people in the cultivation of fruit or in the development of agriculture. Having thus unburdened myself, I forgot all about it. One fine morning I found a ministerial carwe stopping in my porch. As Sir Joginder Singh came out of the car, he said, in a friendly voice: “Mahajan, you have not spared me.” I had clean forgotten the letter to the Governor and said that I had done nothing against him. He produced the letter that the Governor had sent to him with a note. He said that instead of writing to the Governor, I should have written to him. This was the beginning of a close friendship between Sir Joginder Singh, S. B. Lal Singh and myself. The minister paid a visit to my orchard at Talnoo, Dharamsala, and to my orchards at Pathankot and Bhadwar. He also took me round the various orchards in the district of Montgomery, particularly the big orchard and the squash factory of Mitchells. Mitchells also became very friendly to me. This ultimately led to my starting the Glacier Products Factory at Pathankot which has now passed on to some of my sons and is managed by my son Maharaj.
to be continued....