Fazilka, September 18
There has been no let up in the quality of mid-day meal being supplied to the schools in the Fazilka area.

Employees of Mumbai-based NGO, Naari Shakti, entrusted with the task of supplying the meal, appeared to be unfazed by the reports of sub-standard food containing worms as the vendors engaged by them supplied the same quality of food today.

On the second consecutive day, worms were detected in the mid-day meal supplied to Government Senior School, village Lalowali of this sub-division. On the instruction of the school principal, the food was thrown away.

The authorities concerned appeared to be in deep slumber. Apparently, the administration is awaiting occurrence of a major tragedy before it acts. The authorities candidly admitted that worms were present in the mid-day meal. 

They added that the quality of the food would be improved and the block primary education officers (BPEOs) had been directed to “check” food before distribution.

The sordid state of affairs continued even as no sample of the sub-standard mid-day meal was taken so far.

Leave alone taking action against those responsible for the bad food, none of them has even been questioned so far.

Contrary to it, a schoolteacher, on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that their senior officers had instead “reprimanded” them for showing to the media the worms in the mid-day meal.

Sohan Lal Kashayap, district education officer (elementary), reiterated his earlier version that the system of supplying mid-day meal would be streamlined soon.

He parried questions on action against the mid-day meal suppliers and hastened to add that the senior officers have been informed.

SDM Fazilka Rajiv Prashar said he held detailed discussion on this issue with deputy commissioner, Ferozepur, Megh Raj, who visited Fazilka today.

He said the DC had informed him that the entire matter would be probed by a senior officer of the district.

Meanwhile, not only the quality of the mid-day meal continued to be same the quantity was quite inadequate in proportion to the students.

Abohar, September 18
The students of the Government Senior Secondary School for Girls and Government Elementary School in a hamlet near the town today refused to eat the mid-day-meal pointing to the worms in the vegetable besides rotten chapattis.

Local in-charge of the NGO, which prepared and supplied the food, was quoted as saying, “Please bear with us for a fortnight. We had successfully carried out the work in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Bihar. It takes time to learn about the taste and eating habits of the locals. We have deployed 75 women here to cook food. We have taken the responsibility of serving meals to about 75,000 students.”

SDM N.S. Brar, DEO (E) Sohan Lal Kashyap, district manager of the project Harcharan Singh and BPEO Shyam Sunder Sharma today visited different schools and checked the quality of the meals.

The district officials asked the heads of the schools to check the quality of meals before serving it to the students.

Sources said during a visit to a makeshift kitchen on the outskirts of the town, some women were found cleaning utensils while others were busy sorting ‘rajmah’ and rice for cooking meals under unhygienic conditions. Domestic LPG cylinders were also being used in the kitchen.

Ferozepur, September 18
The Forest Department has busted a gang responsible for the illegal felling of trees in the Zira range and seized the tools and implements including tractor trolleys being used for this purpose.

According to sources in the department, the forest officials got secret information that some people were illegally felling trees on old Fatewal canal near village Bahu Gujran in Jogewala under Zira range.

The forest officials, including Raghubir Singh, Block Officer, Sukhjeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, both forest guards, immediately rushed to the spot.

The miscreants, however, managed to escape leaving behind two tractors and two trolleys loaded with illegally felled green trees.

The culprits were identified as Gurmukh Singh, Sarbjit Singh and Ranjit Singh, residents of Bahu Gujran in Tehsil Zira.  

Ironically, during the course of the inquiry, the offenders produced revenue record including registration of property by the Tehsildaar, claiming that the said piece of land belongs to them.

Forest officials said they were shocked to know that government forest land has been registered in private name.

Further inquiry revealed that the said piece of land was granted as claim to some persons in the year 1990, who sold the same to Bhajan Singh, who got it registered in his name. 

Forest officials said that according to the 1958 notification of the state government, all strips along the scheduled roads, canals, drains and railway lines were declared as protected forests under the Indian Forest Act of 1927.

Officials said that as for the diversion of forest lands for non forest purposes, permission is required from the central government under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.

Diversion of forest land except as otherwise laid out under the provisions of the 1980 Act is a criminal contempt of the Supreme Court order dated 12 October 19996, the officials added. 

Forest officials demanded that a thorough probe was required to examine the role of revenue officials responsible for changing the status of the forest land without getting a no objection certificate (NOC) or sanction from the forest department.

Bathinda, September 18
Guranditta Singh sold his cotton produce here on Tuesday, but he is unable to return home in Gobindpura village because he is forced to guard the lot in the marketing committee yard as the ginning unit that has purchased it was unable to lift the stock due to shortage of labour.

Besides him, Balkaran and many other cotton producers are held up here even after disposing their produce, as they would receive payment from buyers only after the stock is lifted safe and sound.

These farmers said they were spending sleepless nights, as they have to be watchful against theft of their produce.

Guranditta Singh pointed out that many farmers were held up also due to shortage of men who would weigh the stock.

He said that the shortage of labour has pushed up the cost of plucking cotton in the fields. They were charging anything between Rs 300 to Rs 400 for plucking a quintal of cotton against the rate of Rs 200 last year.

Another reason for the steep hike in labour cost was that initially the produce was sold for Rs 3,200 per quintal as a result of which the labourers fixed higher charges for plucking.

However, the cotton price has now decreased to about Rs 2,700 per quintal, but the labourers continue to charge higher wages causing loss to farmers.

Jaskaran Singh, another farmer, said that he was waiting since yesterday for his cotton produce to be weighed.

Commission agents, when contacted, said that adequate manpower was expected to arrive within the next five to six days when the cotton procurement picks up.

The farmers were also annoyed over the covered areas of the market committee yard having virtually been captured by truckers who park their vehicles there forcing the farmers to dump their cotton produce in the open where it was vulnerable to loss due to rain, theft or fire.

Bathinda, September 18
Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary, will begin his three-day Punjab tour from the Malwa belt where he will spend two days in a bid to retain Congress supremacy.

He would first come to Bathinda September 22 where he would spend the night and address a public meeting at Rampura Phul the next morning.

The PCC chief, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, told the TNS today that Rahul Gandhi would proceed to Muktsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Jaito after the public meeting. He would meet the Youth Congress activists at these places.

Thereafter, he would visit Doaba and Majha regions of Punjab. This indicates that the Malwa belt would once again become the battlefield of the ruling Akali Dal (B) and Congress in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Significance is being attached to Rahul Gandhi choosing to begin his tour from the Malwa belt where Congress trounced Akali Dal during the last assembly elections.

Interestingly, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the SAD chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, have been making frequent visits here and initiating development projects in an effort to win over the hearts of the electorate in the Malwa belt.

Rahul Gandhi would spend some time at Muktsar, which is the home constituency of Parkash Singh Badal.

The Congress had recently organised a large public meeting at Lambi in Muktsar where the former chief minister Amrinder Singh was the main speaker.

Bathinda, September 18
Housefed has decided to venture into the business of building luxury flats for NRIs at Kapurthala and also develop housing colonies at various other places in Punjab.

Krishan Kumar Bawa, chairman of Housefed , said here today that Doaba being the hub of NRIs, he expected that there would be good demand for such flats there.

He said that a project to build flats exclusively for government employees would be taken in hand at Banur in the Patiala district.

Bawa said that looking into the growing demand for built up houses, the federation was contemplating to construct 90 flats in Ludhiana and 168 in Amritsar.

He said that the PUDA was not adhering to the directions that 30 per cent of the area earmarked for housing should be allocated to the Housefed and other cooperative housing societies.

Meanwhile, residents of the Housefed colony on the Dabwali road today took exception to the federation putting up for auction a portion of the land earmarked for school in the colony.

Jagpal Singh, a resident of the area, complained that originally an area of 3.5 acres was earmarked for the school, but suddenly the Housefed authorities decided to carve 10 new plots thereby reducing the school area to 1.6 acres. The residents put resistance to auction of these plots this morning.

They alleged that the Housefed had neglected the colony where the condition of roads was very bad. Drinking water supply and sewerage system was also faulty.

Machhana (Bathinda), September 18
Farmers of village Machhana in Bathinda district have set a novel example when it comes to diversification of crops.

Instead of cultivating the traditional major crops, farmers here have taken the initiative to grow chilly in a major way.

Terming the diversification a wise decision, the farmers feel happy with the income their crop generates which they claim is much more than paddy, cotton and wheat.

During a visit to village Machhana, TNS found acres of land covered with chillies (green and red).

There is hardly a family in the village that has around 175 homes, that does not grow chillies in its fields.

Sharing his experience, Raj Pal Singh, a farmer, who has grown chillies in one acre out of his total eight-acre land said, "It was a right decision. Four years back, I opted to grow chillies in my fields and I have been getting handsome return."

Speaking further, he said that the life of a chilly plant is one year and after that, the plant has to be uprooted and new saplings are planted on the same land after a gap of two years.

It takes only 10-15 days for plucking, depending on the climate. Saplings are planted in February and plucking starts from May, which continues till January.

When asked about the marketing hassles, he said buyers from Faridkot, Kotkapura and Jind in Haryana come to the village to purchase chillies and pay in cash.

Rupinder Singh, another farmer, said that finding chilly production profitable, he had grown the plants a second time.

"Though I have a small piece of land that is around three acres, I have planted chilly saplings in one acre. I have sown the Korean variety which we get from Nagra and Sheron villages near Sunam in Punjab," he added.

Sharing views, Megh Raj, who has planted chillies in six kanal of land, spoke about the disease which causes the leaves of the chilly plant to shrink and burn. He said the crop is sensitive and accumulation of water has to be prevented near it.

"Heavy rainfall or waterlogging damages the crop rapidly. Moreover, it requires canal water as groundwater is not suitable for irrigation due to contamination," he added.

About the expenditure incurred on planting the crop, the farmers said that a sapling costs around 40 paisa but pesticides have to be sprayed a number of times to protect the plant from diseases.

However, the villagers did not sound very enthusiastic when asked about the possibility of launching a processing unit as joint venture.

They also regretted that none of the agricultural or administrative officials had come to the village to help them in promoting this crop diversification.

Abohar, September 18
Decks for the long-awaited 42-km-long Abohar-Fazilka rail line project were cleared with the physical possession of the 3-km stretch in the government seed farm near here on Thursday.

Additional deputy commissioner Jaskiran Singh, sub-divisional magistrate N.S. Brar and deputy superintendent of police Parampal Singh supervised the transfer of land to the railway authorities.

Elaborate security arrangements were made to meet any untoward situation. Even the riot control van along with police force was requisitioned from the district headquarters. An ambulance was also arranged for the purpose.

There was little resistance from the former tenants, who belonged to the Rai Sikh community and had reportedly been cultivating the fertile land for the last few decades without making any contribution to the state exchequer. Some persons were rounded up but no case was registered against them.

While welcoming today’s development, Hanuman Dass Goyal, joint secretary of the North Zone Rail Passengers Association, said he had also sought the intervention of the Chief Justice Vijendra Jain of the then Punjab and Haryana High Court during his pre-retirement visit here.

By linking Abohar and Fazilka by railways, it would now be possible to run train from Udhampur in Jammu region to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

“It will not only be boom for business community but for the Army too,” said Madan Lal Bhalotia, a member of the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee.

Hundreds of passengers had desired that a direct train to Ahmedabad should be started. This too would be possible if conversion of meter gauge line between Sriganganagar and Suratgarh was taken up on a war footing, he said.

Railway sources said there would be five railway stations in between Abohar and Fazilka. Contractors have been asked to speed up the construction of two overbridges, five major bridges over the canals and 88 small bridges.

Meanwhile, the room that was being used as a religious place apparently to obstruct the acquisition of land for the Abohar-Fazilka rail link was razed to ground late in the evening on Thursday, sources said.

The officials claimed that the holy book had been removed with traditional honour before initiating the demolition.

Officials said the contractors were at liberty to remove all the buildings, which were a hurdle in the completion of project.

Mansa, September 18
The four-lane highway from Pathankot to Ajmer would be completed within three years. The work concerning identification of land for the purpose has been started and it would be completed soon.

The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) is monitoring this project in the Punjab area, said the managing director of the board Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

He added that the Reliance company has forwarded a proposal in this regard and the estimated cost of the project in the Punjab area was around Rs 9,600 crore. The road will pass through Jalandhar, Moga, Barnala and Mansa.

After the identification of the land, some farmers of Mansa expressed apprehension that if the highway was being constructed at a level higher than the fields, then the farmers would certainly suffer losses.

Mansa, September 18
Indefinite dharna by some Sikh organisations against the construction of the Dera Sacha Sauda building here continued today.

The president of the Akali Dal Panch Pardhani, Daljeet Singh Bittu, who led the dharna, informed that the dharna would continue until their demand of sealing the structure was not met.

He said they do not want to create any problem in the society and that the Dera had become a problem in Punjab.

However, some Dera followers clarified that they were constructing on their own land and no one should object to it.

SSP Manminder Singh said the police personnel were deployed around the dharna site to avoid any untoward incident.

Prominent Congress leaders of this town have condemned the blocking of traffic
on the Mansa-Sirsa road by some Sikh organisations in protest against the Dera
construction here.

Sher Singh Gagowal, MLA from Mansa, Mangat Rai Bansal, MLA from Budhlada, Pritpal Singh, ex-president of the Truck Union, Mansa, and Manjit Singh Rana said in a statement here today that Dera followers had been constructing the Dera building on their own land and no one had any right to raise objection against it.

They also criticised the administration for not taking any strict action against the protesters. Meanwhile, the residents of the area have been facing harassment due to road blockage.

They demanded immediate arrest of those who attacked Bhola Singh, a Dera follower, at Bhikhi recently.

It may be recalled that Bhola was shot injured by some motorcyclists and was admitted at P.G.I. Chandigarh.

Mansa, September 18
Today’s heavy rain has exposed the poor sewerage system in this city yet again. Commuters faced difficulties as rainwater blocked various places of the city.

These included Dheer street, Labh Singh street, Bhatha Basti, court road and road approaching the cremation ground.

CPI leader Butta Singh, CPI (ML) leader Sukhcharan Singh Danewalia, Radical People Forum leader Jaspal Kokhar and Women leader Rekha Sharma said the blocked dirty water had led to the spreading of jaundice and malaria earlier.

They demanded that the administration and the municipal council should take appropriate steps for the proper disposal of the dirty water.

Barnala, September 18
After the OYT scheme, now it is shortage of electricity meter supply in the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), which is troubling the common man.

One has to pay about 3-4 times more than the original price of the electricity meter as one is forced to buy it from private shops.

Sources said there was shortage of meters in the PSEB for the past one year. Though it was providing supply of single-phase meter but the three-phase meters were completely out of stock.

In spite of regular demands, it appears that the PSEB officials were least bothered to regulate the supply of both single-phase and three-phase meters.

Charanjeet, a private shop owner on Dhanaula road, has stated in an affidavit that his three-phase electricity meter went out of order some time back.

The PSEB started sending him bills on an average basis. When he objected to it, the board officials told him to get the meter replaced.

He gave an application to the local office for meter replacement but the staff there expressed their helplessness due to shortage of electricity meter supply for an year.

Left with no other option, now he had to purchase it from the open market. But to his surprise, a private shop owner demanded Rs 6,000 for the meter and said that he would issue the bill for Rs 1,270 only.

Charanjeet said the shop owner had informed him that some of the amount had to be given to meter-testing laboratory officials, which is about Rs 2,000 per meter.

Rattan Mittal, XEN, Barnala, when contacted, admitted that there was shortage of three-phase electricity meter for the past many months.

So, those who want to buy it or replace it can purchase from the open market.

Regarding the meter-testing fee, he said the fee for testing of single-phase meter was Rs 100 and for three-phase meter it was Rs 400 per meter.

“If anybody is charging more than this price, it is illegal.”

Mittal expressed ignorance about the selling of the electricity meter at Rs 6,000 per meter while the actual price was Rs 1,270.

He said he has not received any complaint in this regard.

Barnala, September 18
The Pharmacy Council, Punjab, has decided to fight against the menace of drug abuse in the state.

For the purpose, the council has made resolutions to deal with the malpractice.

Parveen Kumar Bhardwaj, registrar of the council, informed that the council had issued directions to the pharmacists of the state to do away with the drugs as it had already gripped the youth of the state.

The council has appealed to the pharmacists to abstain from any kind of malpractice. And if any pharmacist continued with such a malpractice, which was against the Pharmacy Act, 1948, the council would cancel his registration.

The registrar said if a complaint was received, the council will conduct an independent probe and if found guilty, a disciplinary action would be initiated against the pharmacist concerned.

The council has also decided to abolish the hiring of licence system, where one can practise pharmacy with licence hired from any other person.

Abohar, September 18
Archers of Guru Nanak Khalsa College here have clinched titles in PU competitions. A progressive farmer Har Partap Singh awarded Rs 10,000 to the archers.

Ravinder Kaur won three gold medals by scoring 252, 283 and 535 points in the 50 meter, 30 meter and over all rounds in the inter-college competitions.

Gur Parkash Singh clinched two bronze medals in the 50 meter and overall events. Gursantveer Singh won gold in the 30 meter (compound round).   

These archers will now participate in the All India Inter University Competitions slated for October 25 at Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, archers of Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College have won silver medal at the Panjab University Inter-college competitions. Parveena won bronze medal in the 50 meter event.

He said the health authorities had already banned the advertisements promoting sale of aphrodisiacs or claims of treatment of chronic diseases with the help of such medical practices.

This had led to a number of road mishaps in the past. If motorists or pedestrians object they act rude.