Unchahara (Satna): Ten years have passed since the soil-testing was set up at Itah Khokharra in Karay Janpad in the district, but its lock has not been opened.

So the building is in ruins these days because of negligence by the officials of the department, sources said.

A huge amount of money was spent on the building, official sources said.

When the building came up, the officials said soil-testing for farmlands would be done at the centre.

Although a decade has passed since the centre was constructed, its lock has not been opened, and the building it is on its last leg.

Soil-testing equipment worth lakhs of rupees lies unused, official sources further said.

When the issue was put up before the officials concerned, they said the soil-testing centre is a branch of the agriculture department which has virtually cast off the building.

As a result, the farmers cannot do soil testing, sources further said.

Although the farmers raised the issue several times before the officials of the agriculture department and those of the district administration, the administration did not pay any heed.

The centre was built to test soil so that the farmers might know the shortcomings in the farmland.

Kisan Union’s district unit president Thakur Prasad Singh said lakhs rupees were spent to build the soil-testing centre, but it was never opened.

District agriculture officer, Vijay Kumar Tripathi, said soil-testing had not been done in the new building because of shortage of staff.

Samples of soil are sent to Rewa for testing, he said.