Bathinda, June 27
Iqbal Singh sits in grief besides the paddy plants that have completely dried in his field in the Amargarh village due to drought like situation that has developed because of no rain and long stretched power cuts, as a result of which the tubewells do not pump water.

There are several other farmers like Iqbal Singh in and around the village on the Bathinda-Goniana road, who have suffered loss of the recently transplanted saplings due to high temperature.

Iqbal Singh had planted paddy on 10 acres and Bt cotton on four acres, but the paddy plants over three acres have completely dried up and he shall have to replace them with fresh saplings.

The problem is not that simple for him and other farmers because this season they have faced an acute shortage of migrant farm labour whom he had paid an “exhorbitantly high” rate of Rs 1800 for transplanting paddy saplings on each acre. They shall have to again spend the amount in case they replaced the withered plants.

Across the road in another field, Gurdial Singh mourns that paddy plants on his four acres have dried up and this time yield of the crop would be loss making.

Farmers in the area, who are supplied irrigation water from the Kot-Bhai distributory, had visualised the problem of diminishing water and about 60 of them got their own tubewells drilled but the scheduled and unscheduled power cuts have not let them overcome the problem as the motors remain shut.

The canal water supply was insufficient to irrigate the paddy fields.

Some of the farmers have now started running the water pumps by attaching these with their tractor engines. However, this was a costly proposition because 5 to 6 litres of diesel worth about Rs 200 has to be burnt to irrigate each acre, Gurdial Singh says.

Electric supply is erratic in the area, the farmers complain. They squatted on the road yesterday to lodge their protest against frequent power cuts.

Bathinda, June 27
“We do not want big subsidies in farming sector but there should be some logical parameters for everyone.” This was stated by Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, chairman, Punjab Mandi Board while talking to media at a hotel here today.

Lakhowal said prices of crops should be related to price index or with international market or it should be given as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee. He said that 14 new air-conditioned mandis would be set up in the state. He said that this was being done to help vegetable growing farmers in the state.

Lakhowal added that as compared to last year, there had been an increase of 15 per cent in the mandi market fee and which was this year pegged at Rs 110 crore. Apart from this, the board had collected Rs 13 crore as fine from various sources, he said.

He further stated that 1400 km more link roads would be set up this year across the state. He reiterated that those link roads that had a lifespan of six years would be given priority.

"The Punjab Mandi Board had provided weigh bridges in most of the important mandis in order to ensure proper weighing of the produce brought by the farmers,” the Punjab Mandi Board chairman added.

Earlier, a seminar on post-harvest handling of horticultural crops was also held in a hotel. As many as 100 farmers, who participated in the seminar, were told by the experts of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) about handling of fruits and vegetables, and familiarised them with grades and quality standards of fruit and vegetables. 

Bathinda, June 27
During the past 11 days, the Bathinda district police registered 44 cases of theft and snatching. With this, all drives and promises of the Bathinda police to provide security to the city residents seem to have fallen flat. Interestingly, in some cases, the thieves decamped with articles from the houses of cops.

The rising crime graph has only scared the residents. Hardly a day has passed without at least two incidents of snatching, theft, burglary or house breaking not being reported. June 21-22 saw eight cases each being reported..

Going by the crime reports of the past 11 days, it was observed that thieves were not only targeting motor vehicles, jewellery and cash but did not even spare the copper in electricity transformers.

After earning flak due to rise in theft cases, the city cops had launched a special drive earlier in the month and sensitised people to take necessary precautions.

They had started holding ‘nukkad’ meetings and urged residents against leaving their houses unmanned. Along with making a request to all to inform the police while leaving the station, cops had offered to man their premises.

But it did not evoke the desired response and the district police launched another special drive, the ‘Night Domination’. Senior officers started keeping surveillance over the PCR patrolling staff from 11 pm to 4 am.

The city was divided in 30 beats, where vigil is reportedly going on round-the-clock. In this operation, it was decided to keep tab over some specific miscreants. The police had gathered details of slum area residents also.

It was also decided that any lapse would be the responsibility of the cop in-charge of that particular beat. But till date, no action has been taken against any cop.

Though Naunihal Singh, SSP Sangrur, who has been given additional charge of Bathinda, has been trying to check the menace, people are still waiting for results.

Bathinda, June 27
A group of cheerful and enthusiastic young girls from various colleges aspire to join the Indian Army after attending the NCC’s annual training camp (ATC).

They also vowed to follow principles of unity, discipline and the spirit to achieve one’s ambition that they were taught during the camp. Around 47 girl cadets, who were a part of the ATC organised at the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology here, shared their views about the camp with the TNS.

“I am in love with the olive greens. The day I saw an Army officer, I decided that I would wear the olive green uniform one day,” said Meenakshi, a cadet.

Gagandeep Kaur has resolved to remain punctual all her life. “I never thought of waking up at four in the morning just to do PT, running and other physical exercises. By doing so, I felt that I had done something to remain fit and active. I would practise the same throughout my life,” she added.

Raman, Geeta and Veerpal aspire to represent Punjab at the Republic Day parade in 2010 at Delhi. They would be appearing in the selection process for the Republic Day parade, to be held soon at Patiala and later at Chandigarh.

During the ATC, girl cadets were also selected for different camps like the basic paratroop camp to be held in Agra, a thal sainik camp and an SSB camp, which would train them for clearing the recruitment process of the Army.

The ATC was organised by 20 Punjab Battalion, NCC, where 500 cadets in junior and senior wings and divisions participated. The cadets came from different places of the state and were trained in firing, drill, map reading, tent-pitching, obstacles, cross country and personality development.

Abohar, June 27
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is now up in arms against alleged intimidation of an ENT specialist by the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU).

The IMA during an emergency meeting here that was presided over by Dr Rakesh Arora took strong view of the reported misbehaviour of rowdy supporters of a patient meted out recently to Dr Paramjit Singh under the banner of the BKU.

The doctor informed the meeting that the operation of the patient was conducted on January 26. The crowd that gathered recently at his Civil Hospital road clinic allegedly used abusive language and demanded Rs 50,000 as compensation and threatened him with dire consequences.

The meeting arrived at the conclusion that the doctor had given the best possible treatment to the patient and the involvement of the BKU was totally uncalled for. The abusive language and the mob fury were condemned in unequivocal terms by over 100 members who recorded their presence.

The IMA asked Dr Paramjit Singh not to yield to such an illegitimate demand in the wake of the “concocted story.”

Dr Arora said that the whole episode will be brought to the notice of all IMA branches in the state with a request to protest against such incidents being blown out of proportion and the involvement of miscreants in the name of trade unions.

The BKU activists, meanwhile, said the doctor had not detected on time that the patient suffered from throat cancer. 

Chandigarh, June 27
Members of the Panchayat Association Punjab today criticised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for favouring Jalalabad villages in allocation of grants by the state government.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Sukhdev Singh, president of the association, said the fact that the CM had been virtually camping in Jalalabad for the past so many days shows that he was more bothered about his son’s political future than problems of the state.

He added that in the past few weeks, the CM had given Rs 10 crore as grants to the villages in Jalalabad and another Rs 18 crore for the urban areas.

“The entire focus of the government’s attention is Jalalabad and the other two constituencies, Banur and Kahnuwan, while the villages which have opposition party supporters as panchs or sarpanches are being ignored,” he said.

The association members also objected to the distribution of these grants through government officers bypassing the panchayats. He added that the association would be approaching the court in this regard.

Moga, June 27
The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee has asked the chief minister Prakash Singh Badal to stop blaming the Centre for ignoring the economic rights of the state and rather concentrate on improving the law and order situation in the state.

Vijay Sathi, general secretary, PPCC said that the Centre had approved an increase of 39 per cent in the annual plan of the state for the fiscal 2009-10, the highest among the states, which clearly indicates the importance being given to Punjab.

He said that Badal should stop talking against the union government and shed the anti-Centre attitude.

He said that the present day Punjab presents a picture of lawlessness. The recent incidents of torturing a revenue official, an additional superintendent engineer of the state electricity board and an official of the food and civil supplies department shows the pathetic picture of the SAD-BJP regime. — TNS

Moga, June 27
The body of an unidentified youth with head injuries has been found on Charik-Gholia road in Baghapurana sub-division of this district here, today.

In the preliminary investigations, the police suspected it to be a case of murder because the head injuries visibly seemed to have been caused by sharp-edged weapons. The police had taken the body into custody and sent it for post-mortem in the district hospital, where the body would be kept for three days for identification.

Police had registered a criminal case of murder under sections 302 and 341 of the IPC against unidentified persons, said Kikkar Singh, SHO of the Baghapurana police station.

Further investigations were in progress and efforts were being initiated by the police to identify the body, said the SHO.

In another incident, the local police recovered the body of a youth from Zira road of the town today. This body was also yet to be identified, when the news report was being filed.

No police official came on record to comment on this incident but on the condition of anonymity, cops revealed that it could be a case of murder. The autopsy would asertain the cause of death, cops said.

Abohar, June 27
Efforts to check burglaries in the sub-divisional town suffered a major set-back as miscreants succeeded in decamping with cash and jewellery valued over Rs 20 lakhs from the palatial house of a transporter here, sources said.

Owner of the house told the police that he could know about one of the major burglaries, as he woke up in the morning hours. He found everything scattered on the floors in the adjoining rooms. The culprits managed to break the safe vaults to take away gold and diamond ornaments besides currency.