& V I C I N I T Y
Tuesday, October 27, 1998
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C H A N D I G A R H & V I C I N I T Y |
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Tuesday, October 27, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Housewives blame govt for
price rise No
improvement in Police
remand of |
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 'Promote blood donation' CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — There was a need to broaden the scope of the blood donation movement to meet the increasing demand for this life saving fluid, said the Punjab Governor, Lieut-Gen B.K.N. Chhibber (retd). Hip-hop
Bhangra 'ishtyle'
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Power
contractors to stop work Village
panel's protest on Nov 15 They
became ‘terrorists’ for fun: study Rallies
held to mobilise staff Economist
warns of ecological toll |
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Housewives blame govt for price rise CHANDIGARH,Oct 26 — Reeling under the burden of rising prices, residents of the City Beautiful have flayed the BJP-led government for its failure in containing spiralling prices of essential commodities, particularly vegetables. They maintain that the price rise, which has been unprecedented during past three to five months, is an outcome of the hoarding of essential commodities by big traders who have full political patronage. An average consumer feels that if the government is serious in bailing out the poor consumer, it can do so by launching a crackdown on the unscrupulous stockists, hoarders and middlemen, who are thriving by looting both the producer and the consumer. While talking to TNS, here today, Mrs Kusum, a resident of Sector 18, said the government was siding with the traders by not doing anything to find out the reasons behind the unprecedented price hike and doing nothing to check it. She lamented that it was surprising that even after being aware of the situation, the government was indifferent to the plight of the people. She said she was forced to cut her weekly purchase of vegetables due to the hike in prices. "Earlier, I used to buy 2.5 kg of onions every week, but now it has been reduced to not more than 0.5 kg. The health of my children is at stake, as I am not able to provide sufficient green vegetables and salad to them," she said. Similarly, Ms Sushma, a resident of Sector 41 said she used to fetch vegetables for the entire week with Rs 100 just three months back. But now the same quantity was available for at least Rs 400, as even the cabbage had shot from Rs 10 to Rs 24 during this period. She said the government must intervene to bring back the situation to normal. Ms Monika, a resident of Mohali, said it were the employees who suffered the most due to the rise in the prices of items of daily use. "Owing to a steep price hike, I was forced to increase my monthly budget for ration from Rs 1300 to Rs 2000. Just four months back 1 kg of refined oil was priced between Rs 45 and Rs 50, now the same was available at Rs 65," she said while ruing that half of her salary went in buying ration and vegetables for her family. She suggested that the government should at least do something as far as the prices of items of daily use were concerned, so that the salaried class, already burdened with taxes, should not be affected anymore. Another housewife, Mrs Nachattar Kaur, a resident of Kishangarh village said she was feeling helpless as far as the price hike was concerned. She felt that the situation had arisen due to the hoarding of vegetables and other household items by the big traders. She questioned why any raids had not been conducted by the authorities. "The entire country is crying for onions. Tell me, who has been punished so far?" She said the government had badly failed on this front. Mrs Godawari Devi, of
Sector 20, was of the same view and said she had heard
that to create an "onion like" situation, the
big traders had started storing potatoes to sell these on
a premium later on. She said even after paying a higher
price for edible items there was no guarantee that these
were free from adulteration. |
‘Wake
up from slumber’ PANCHKULA, Oct 26 — If the government can regulate the price of commodities covered under the Public Distribution System (PDS) why can not it come forward to check the prices of other daily use items ? This question was raised by a section of housewives interviewed by the Tribune team in Panchkula. They want the Central Government to wake up from the deep slumber and regulate prices of vegetables and other daily use items. Ms Indra Gupta, a resident of Sector 15, said: "I like many others have stopped purchasing onions but still it is being sold at Rs 55". She wanted the government to trace down the genesis of the problem. Quoting the rates of vegetable in Apni mandi which was held in Sector 20 today, she says that her monthly kitchen budget had been disturbed with almost all the vegetables selling at above Rs 10 a kilo. To check the current prices of vegetables the Tribune team visited the rehri markets in different sectors apart from Apni mandi. It was found that the price difference between the rehri markets and the Apni mandi was not much. Onions were selling between Rs 45 and Rs 50 a kilo in Apni mandi while in the Sector 9 rehri market is was being sold for Rs 55 a kilo.The pahadi potato was available for Rs 16 a kilo but the same quality of potato was being sold for Rs 15 in the rehri market. Ms Seema Dhiman, a resident of Sector 7, saw political patronage to stockists behind the price hike. She was skeptical about any decrease in the price of onions in the wake of the government decision to import the commodity. She said ever since the BJP led government came into power the prices of daily use items had gone out of reach of the common man. Mrs Geeta Sukhija, a resident of sector 4, said the price of edible oils, sugar and cereals had registered an increase in the last few months." I have already started rationing the items as the situation holds no promise in the future", she added. A survey of grocery items
revealed they had registered an increase of at least 20
per cent since January this year. Refined oil which was
selling between Rs 48 and 50 a litre in January was now
available between Rs 58 and Rs 70 a litre. The price of
cereals had also gone up by 25 percent. |
No improvement in licence office CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — It is the same old tale of long queues, harried clerks, misplaced documents, collection slips being stamped for the next date for the umpteenth time, wordy duels and the harassment of the public at the UT licensing and registration authority of motor vehicles office. The branch has seldom been out of the news and officers heading it have admitted that even at the best of times running it is no mean task. It is facing several public interest litigations, forcing the courts to intervene and order the delivery of documents which have not been delivered for years together. Several ambitious schemes drawn up by the Administration to streamline the functioning of the branch have remained on paper only. The computerisation of the branch has been dogged by technical snags. All efforts to put the record room in order have been in vain. Mr Manjit Sehdev even on his sixth visit to the branch in four months to have the make of his car corrected in the documents failed to have his problem redressed. His Maruti Zen has been entered in the registration papers as a Maruti 800 car. "The plea of the dealing hand is that the documents were untraceable. I even paid Rs 100 to the record keeper but the file could not be traced", he claimed. In the meantime, "I have been detained on two occasions by the police for possessing a stolen car," he laments. Ms Meena Sharma told TNS that she had bought a car six months ago but it had not been transferred to her name so far. Mr A.K. Sharma could be seen arguing with the official in charge for getting his licence only to be gruffly told to meet the higher authorities. As the timings for meeting the assistant secretary were over, he was not allowed to go inside the officer's room. He claimed it was his fifth visit to the branch and a waste of his half day leave. Branch officials, on the other hand, claimed that they had been hampered by the lack of staff and the division of the branch staff. Some of the employees also functioned from the DC's office. Of the 14 sanctioned posts, only eight employees were available. Of the 18 workers deployed under the sahayata project, only one was available here and he too only turned up for a couple of hours in the morning, they said. Several proposals,
including recruitment of more staff, to streamline the
functioning of the branch are pending before the Deputy
Commissioner. |
Chhibber: promote blood donation CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — There was a need to broaden the scope of the blood donation movement to meet the increasing demand for this life saving fluid, said the Punjab Governor, Lieut-Gen B.K.N. Chhibber (retd), while speaking at a function organised by the Blood Donation Society at Panjab University here this evening. Keeping in view the shortage of blood due to the recent Supreme Court judgement banning professional blood-sellers, there is a need for more donations. Speaking after he had honoured the voluntary blood donors, the Governor said there was an urgent need to expand the voluntary blood donation movement to semi-urban and rural areas so as to eliminate the menace of professional blood-sellers. General Chhibber said there was a greater need for establishing a network amongst various blood banks to meet the urgent need of blood in the neighbouring areas. Lauding the role of the Blood Bank Society, Chandigarh, for its valuable contribution in maintaining 100 per cent voluntary blood donation services in the city, the Governor called upon the social workers to motivate donors to meet the increasing demand for blood. Earlier, Prof B.N.S. Walia, a former Director of the PGI and now president of the society gave a resume of activities of the society. The Governor honoured 400
voluntary blood donors. The prominent donors included Mr
Charanjit Singh (115 times), Mr S.S. Gill (105 times), Mr
Harish Sharma (101 times), Mr Janak Raj Grover (92
times), Mr Arun Aggarwal (99 times), Mr S.S. Setia (90
times), Dr J.M. Goel (85 times) and Mr Debashish Mohanti
(80 times). |
Hip-hop Bhangra 'ishtyle' CHANDIGARH: Ear-splitting music, vivaciously perky singing and frenzied dancing. Is this the shape of wintry evenings to come to the City Beautiful? So it seemed, seeing a sprawling crowd animatedly cheering the duo of Stereo Nation, Tarsame Singh 'Taz' and Kendell Smith, at North Park, Panchkula, on Sunday evening. Though a full two hours behind time, because of technical snags in the sound system, the spirits of the huge crowd was far from dampened. In fact, a full use of the eat-and-drink stalls was made instead, on the chilly evening. It was the popular "Haryanavi Jat" Udham Singh, of Channel V, who first made his appearance on to the stage and regaled the audience with his rip-roaring one-liners. And though the crowd roared to request him to sing from his music album, "Jat-in-the-Mix", the cloddish Jat invited Jasbir Jassi to the stage who sang "Ik tara wajda we" and set the pace for a whipped fare of Bhangra and Reggae. After a long-long wait, Stereo Nation finally arrived on the scene. A rousing welcome by the crowd, teamed with taking off of shirts and climbing the barricades, prompted "Taz" to greet them with a loud "Bole Sonehaal, Sat Sri Akal". Dancing, Bhangra "ishtyle", started with the very first number, "Main Valatyon Kaanu aa gaya", a remix from this duo's latest album, "Jambo". And from this began an evening of tumultuous swaying, shaking and a shrieking time. But the crowd, comprising both the young and the not-so-young, reached an all-time ecstatic high only when Stereo Nation belted out its all-time hit number: "Oh Baby, don't break my heart". The group's "Oh Carol, saanu chhad ke na jayein", also had the people on their feet. Seeing the ebullient enthusiasm of the people, it was quite evident that for an exchange of blaring and foot-tapping music, hurdles in the form of unending waits, frustratingly congested parking area or even leeringly lewd strangers are not much of a deterrent. Tarsame Singh's singing and Kendell Smith's grunting blabbering in the form of "Dhol wajde" "Ishq-ishq" and "Sacheyaan ne dil mangaya" were well received. And though starting off on a bumpy note, the exhilarated merriment went on unrestrained through a frosty night. Nobody seemed to care much whether it was a Bhangra or a Reggae, as long as Stereo Nation performed for those who wanted to leap, skip and gambol. —Sonoo
Singh |
Tinted films on vehicles reappear CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Once again four wheelers with tinted films on windowpanes are a common sight in the city. However, this may be a temporary feature as the Chandigarh Traffic Police is only waiting for the Supreme Court to deliver its verdict on the issue. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, had banned the use of tinted films on windowpanes of four wheelers after July 25. The Chandigarh Traffic Police then had launched a drive to challan vehicles with tinted films on windowpanes and thousands of city four-wheeler owners paid between Rs 150 and Rs 200 to get films removed. The matter was stayed by the apex court and now after almost three months vehicles with tinted films are common sight on the city roads. Several vehicle owners, especially youngsters, have got the tinted films re-installed on their vehicles windowpanes while the traffic police is not challaning the vehicles. DSP Traffic, Chandigarh police Thakur Devinder Singh, said that under the Motor Vehicle Act films with 40 per cent visibility on the rear window and 50 per cent visibility on the side windows was permissible, the "no films" direction was not being enforced due to the stay granted by the apex court. However, there is no stay on the ban on the use of unauthorised red light atop cars, the DSP clarified that challans for the same were continuing. Meanwhile sources said a
notification in this regard had been issued before the
court order. Police sources said that those getting films
reinstalled were being overlooked only temporarily. |
JD proposes 'onion chowk' CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — If the local unit of the Janata Dal has its way, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) roundabout will be renamed as 'onion chowk'. Besides this, the Income Tax Department will also be including onion-eaters in the list of tax payees. In a statement here today, Dr Harjit Singh Babbar, secretary-general of the party, said the Administration should carry out modifications in the small dome installed on the roundabout to make it resemble an onion. The day was not for when
onions would only be available in jewellery shops and
people would heavily invest in onion security bonds, he
said. |
Police remand of engineer extended CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — The Judicial Magistrate, Mr Tejwinder Singh, today extended the police remand of Sadhu Singh, an Executive Engineer with the Chandigarh Administration, by one day. He was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Chandigarh police on the charge of making an excess payment of Rs 8.80 lakh to two contractors who were entrusted the task of installing a generating set at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. The police had registered a case under Section 420 read with 120-B, IPC, against him. Sandhu Singh was in judicial custody in connection with the ongoing kickbacks case registered by the Vigilance Department of the Administration against certain officials of the Engineering Department. In this case he was
arrested from the judicial lock-up for custodial
interrogation. |
CITCO workers hold protest CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Members of the CITCO Workers Union today wore black badges and held a gate meeting at Hotel Shivalikview in protest against the management’s decision to lease out Hotel Mountview to a private party. A press note of the union,
issued here, claimed that Hotel Mountview had more than
60 per cent profit share in the total profit of CITCO.
The total investment of the Chandigarh Administration in
the corporation was only about Rs 14 crore against its
total assets of Rs 45 crore, the press note claimed. |
Power contractors to stop work CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — The Chandigarh Government Electrical Contractors Association has threatened to stop work till their previous payments are made. In a letter addressed to the Chief Engineer, the president of the association, Mr Raman Sood, said all electrical contractors were being harassed on one pretext or the other and the payments due to them were not being released. These were being attached by the Income Tax Department following a letter from the Commissioner of Income Tax. The information about the works and payments had been supplied by the Engineering Department to the Income Tax Department. The association had
demanded that all payments should be released in the
names of firms within 15 days."Starting from October
26, we will not work till all these issues are cleared
and we are assured of further payments for the work which
we will execute", the letter said. |
Village panel's protest on Nov 15 CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — The 17-day relay fast by the Action Committee for Development of Villages concluded here today with the protesters deciding to block traffic on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway, near Hallo Majra village, on November 15. Mr Harbhajan Singh and Mr Chaman Lal, president and general secretary, of the committee, respectively, said that no one from the Administration had called on them or invited them to discuss their problems. The Administration was yet to reply to the memorandum submitted on December, 1996, they claimed. Today's meeting of the committee, was attended by Mr Vinod Sharma, President, CTCC, Mr Harmohan Dhawan, former Union Minister, Mr Inderjit Singh Grewal, CPM Secretary, and Mr D.S. Babla, president of the SJP's local unit. Its demands include
extension in the lal dora of villages and withdrawal of
the notification of acquiring land in Hallo Majra. |
CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — A worm-like organism was found in the tap water in a house in Sector 9 here this morning. Mr V.S. Mahajan brought a bottle containing the contaminated water sample to The Tribune office. Rally: On a call given by the Electricity Street Light Employees and Workers Union, a rally was held here on Monday in support of its demands. Among the main demands of
the employees are non-privatisation of street lights,
payment of arrears of revised salary to the daily wage
workers with effect from January 1, 1996, and
regularisation of the services of daily wage employees. |
CHANDIGARH: It's been after a long time that students of College of Art have come up with an exhibition. This time it is a combined effort of two girls — Shaminder Hundal and Preeti Bindlish. Both in the second year of college had been preparing for the show for the past one year. As a result, one gets to see 40 frames of Shaminder's creativity and 36 of Preeti's hard work. Shaminder with her specialisation in painting has shown women in different moods. To work on this theme she talked to various women, observed their moods, expressions, emotions. The media she used are also wide ranging — dry pastels, pastels, pencil colours, glass marker pencils, brush and ink. What is noteworthy here is that the artist has tried to capture the moods not on the face, which is just a blur, but through the body language. For this purpose they have been shown in the form in which every man was created by the Almighty. It would not be wrong to say that Chandigarhians might be witnessing these kind of frames for the first time (because they are so many of them). All the pieces have been dealt similarly. Still, on a closer look one finds that there is a variety in similarity. The other striking feature of Shaminder's treatment of her subject is that she has not tried to inject any innuendo in them. Her projections are natural looking women without any sensuality or grossness. She has taken the right approach but mature handling is yet to come. Drawing inspiration from legends like Michael Angelo, Picasso, M.F. Hussain and their teacher and well-known local artist Prem Singh, this too would come with time. Keeping in mind her age and her launching of her journey as an artist, this lass has embarked upon a path which is full of controversy and not often trodden. Has she unknowingly tried to revolutionise the art of this area? Preeti Bindlish, the other participant is doing her specialisation in applied arts. In this exhibition she has tried to show a fondness for her birth place, Kalka. She says she likes the buildings of that town. This is what her drawing sheets are full of. Using her main medium poster colours with spatula on coloured sheets, Preeti has captured the street scenes quite common in Kalka very vividly. She has also worked in mixed media. Depicting arches, balconies, corridors in bold strokes and bright colours seems to be her basic style. Not a bad show at all, it
deserves at least one visit. The exhibition will be open
at Punjab Kala Bhawan till October 31. — Priti
Verma |
CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Panjab University will shortly have the distinction of being among the seven centres in the country chosen by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to have a supercomputer. The supercomputing facilities will be available to scientists and researchers in the entire region. The university has already received the equipment and will be shortly integrated into the existing university system, Prof Chandrasekher Mukku, Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Application, said while talking to TNS here today. Panjab University is the only university besides Cochin University to have been chosen for the project. The others having this facility are IITs and other premier institutes. Professor Mukku said the university had been chosen under TIFAC (Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council ) of the DST. The system would be functional as soon as it gets connected to the VSNL gateway at SAS Nagar. The system would also have back-up of batteries in case of power breakdowns. The supercomputing facility would not provide merely scientific data but would also serve as a data basis for certain facilities in libraries and archives. The system would be particularly beneficial for fast computation of data. The present system is slow, particularly in case of mathematical modelling of non-linear data, a professor of the university said. Talking about computerisation on the campus, Professor Mukku said seven buildings had been networked. From today, they were expected to provide 24-hour service. When questioned about repeated problems faced by the users in the university, he said the service providers outside the campus would have to shun their "babu" attitude and provide better services. Exchange Programme: Representatives from Sandwell College of England (West Bromwich) held a meeting with Dr R.S. Grewal, Dean Student Welfare, Dr Deepak Manmohan, Dean College Development Council and the Dean Foreign Relations, to discuss an exchange programme between Panjab University and their institute here on Monday. It was unanimously agreed upon that a team from this university would visit the institute early next year. This would be followed by student exchange programmes from the next session. The team was led by Mr
Stewart Nell Smith of the Department of Communication. |
CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — An S.A.S Nagar-based lawyer, his son and nine others allegedly tried to occupy forcibly a two kanal (1000 square yards) house in Sector 21 here and were arrested by the police in the process, sources said today. The lawyer, Mr Rajinder Singh Aulakh, tried to occupy the house of late Jagannath Sharma, who died recently. This he allegedly did with the connivance of Mr O.P. Sharma, a nephew of the deceased. The police here arrested Harvinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Devinder Singh, Harpreet Singh, Raj Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Sukwinder Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Joginder Singh and Gurinder Singh. A case under sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 448, 452, 365, 380 and 506 of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered. According to sources, before his death Jagannath Sharma had altered his Will and gave his two-kanal house to the Pushpawati Trust. In his previous Will Sharma had given the house to his nephew. The trustees of the trust had set the value of the house at the 70 lakh and proceeds from its sale were meant for donations, including Rs 10 lakh for the PGI. After the death of Jagannath Sharma his nephew, Mr O.P. Sharma, allegedly prepared bogus papers that showed him as the owner of one third of the house. Mr O.P. Sharma then allegedly sold off the same one third portion to lawyer, Rajinder Singh Aulakh, and went off to Canada, according to police sources. The police was informed by Mr Yog Raj a trustee of the Pushpawati Trust. Body found: An unidentified body of an old man was found lying near the grain market in sector 26. According to the police he might have been hit by a vehicle. Goods cash stolen: A brief case containing a costly digital diary, a calculator, two imported pens, a cheque for Rs 3300, an LIC policy and several other important papers was stolen from the car of an LIC agent, Mr Dharminder Abrol, here this evening. The car (CH-01-K-1314) was parked in Sector 22-B opposite the ISBT when the incident occurred. Mr Abrol had lodged a complaint with the police. Car stolen: A
Maruti car ( PB— 05—0012) owned by Mr Prithipal
Singh of Sector 37 was stolen from near the Jagat Cinema
complex. Meanwhile in separate cases the police has
booked Tehal Singh, Vicky, Ravi Kumar and Amrit Kumar for
allegedly indulging in eve-teasing. |
They became ‘terrorists’ for
fun: study CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — At least 38 per cent of ‘terrorists’ in the four most affected districts of Punjab took to gun just for the fun of it. As many as 26 per cent joined due to persuasion or coercion. These facts were revealed by Prof Harish K.Puri from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, while delivering the second N.K. Joshi memorial lecture at Panjab University here today. The lecture on "Khalistan Movement : A look back " was organised by the Balraj Sahni Memorial Foundation. Professor Puri was referring to empirical findings of a field study conducted by him along with Prof Paramjit Singh ( sociologist ) and Dr J.S.Sekhon (political science ). The study was conducted out in Amritsar, Majitha, Tarn Taran and Batala districts —which remained the hotbed for terrorists during peak of the movement. Seven villages were chosen in each district. After detailed "interrogation" of different strata of society and the community a total of 323 "terrorists" were detected, Professor Puri said. He said 12 per cent were identified to have joined the "movement" for making quick money; 3 per cent in protest against police atrocities; 7 per cent as a reaction against Operation Bluestar; and only 5 per cent who were actually motivated with the idea of Khalistan. Only a handful of the identified terrorists had any political affiliation. At least 65 per cent of those involved were landless or small farmers. Only 14 per cent had land holdings more of than 10 acres. It was discovered that an overwhelming 90 per cent probably could not recite even the "Japji Sahib" completely. The average age was discovered to be 22, while there were 27 per cent aged between 14 and 19 years. The study also found out that 24 per cent of the identified youth were illiterate; 26 per cent had studied upto middle class; while 41 per cent were only matriculates. Only 37 per cent worked on farm while 25 per cent were identified as "vellahards" (idlers). A substantial percentage of the youth identified in the study belonged to the Jat Sikh community. A stunning revelation at the lecture indicated that a little more than 15 per cent "terrorists" were Hindus! Professor Puri while accepting the limitations of the empirical study said it would at least be suggestive and throw some light on the ground realities as different from the received knowledge. He questioned on the basis of his findings if it was correct to call the movement as "separatist". Professor Puri said even the present government had at a point of time committed to find the real reasons for the growth and end of the Punjab crisis. No real efforts have been made to find the exact explanation and the sudden collapse of the movement. He stressed the need for more such studies. He also shed light on police brutalities and "bureaucracy which went into the press". Dr Pradeep Kumar from PU questioned the methodology adopted for arriving at the findings. Often the people who sustained any movement need not be actually participating in the movement, he said. Dr H.S. Shergill,
Department of Economics, PU, said there were 11 lakh
independent farmers in Punjab.Of these between 80 and 85
per cent were Jat Sikhs. The farmers employed 14 lakh
hired labourers. |
Rallies held to mobilise staff CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Members of the Action Committee of UT Employees and Workers and the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Roads Workers Union held rallies here today to mobilise employees for the October 28 torchlight procession and dharna in various parts of the city. The main demands of the
employees include treating employees sent to the
corporation from various departments of the
Administration as being on deputation, regularisation of
daily wagers and bonus on the Central pattern. |
Economist warns of ecological toll CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Excessive use of inputs like fertilisers, weedicides, pesticides and intensive irrigation and mechanisation have taken a serious ecological toll and if immediate sizeable shift is not brought in the wheat-rice cropping system Punjab will turn into a desert, said Prof H.M. Desarda, a noted economist, who is a former member of the Maharashtra State Planning Board. Professor Desarda, who also participated in a two-day brain-storming session of economist, organised by the Punjab Agriculture University at Ludhiana two days ago, while addressing a press conference at CRRID said here today that the politico-technological strategy of the green revolution had led to degradation and depletion of land and water resources. He said the water intensive monoculture were ruining the soils and leading to the depletion of the underground water table, causing water-logging and salinity and above all destroying the biological diversity. It was a short-sighted strategy of the production which was not at all sustainable and equitable. He said that out of 22
lakh hectares under paddy at least two to three lakh
hectares should be taken out for sowing oilseeds and
vegetables. |
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