Bathinda, September 21
No government procurement agency has entered the cotton market till date. As a result, the farmers of Malwa belt are complaining of being forced to surrender their white gold (cotton) yield to private buyers at cheaper rate.

For the past fortnight, everyday, hundreds of quintals of cotton has been arriving in the markets, throughout this region.

In the absence of any government procurement agency, farmers wait for private players to sell their heaps in the open auction. All this has been giving an unmatched negotiating power to private ginners for purchasing the crop.

“The price I got was not at all acceptable taking into account the labour and expenses incurred on the crop. But to fulfill the economic needs at home, I had no option but to surrender the heap of 15 quintal at the rate of Rs 2,525 per quintal,” lamented Gurjant Singh of village Kotshamir.

An elderly farmer, Gurmail Singh of Jassi Pau Wali, holding a test report of his crop, said, “The technical expert termed my cotton quality as being even better than the set specifications. Despite the fact, when the traders will come, they will apply their clever tactics to buy the yield at a much lesser price. I can not negotiate as till date there is no announcement by the government about the MSP and the date of introducing the CCI in the market. Moreover, I can not store my yield for so long.”

Gurjeet Singh of Kotshamir, who sold eight quintals of cotton heap to private buyers at Rs 2,600 per quintal, said, “During the last season, the total production was calculated as 15-16 quintals per acre, but in this season, it would be confined to just the half as nature itself was against the farmers. It resulted in the size of plants being very small. Now, the private buyers have been doing their best to squeeze us.”

Similar was the reply of Kudeep Singh of Phus Mandi, saying, “This season we faced problems due to the deficit rains, which forced us to burn diesel to water the fields. Then the labour charged about Rs 400 per quintal for picking cotton. Further in market, buyers pay less. All this has shrunk our margin to half of the total value we will receive this time in private sale.”

On the other hand, private ginners have their own logic for bidding lower than the previous year’s MSP, “We are suffering more, as firstly, the financial meltdown has dissipated our optimism and then the high percentage of taxes and market fees has broke the back of our trade. As a result, we can not offer to pay higher price to farmers.”

Bathinda, September 21
The ministry of rural development had constituted an expert group in August last year following glaring shortcomings in the procedure of short listing Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. The group’s task was to recommend a more suitable methodology to identify the poor in the rural areas. This group had recently submitted its report containing the recommendations on the methodology to be followed for conducting the BPL census for the 11th five-year plan.

The detailed study of the factors taken into consideration for giving BPL status to a family state that according to the latest poverty ratio released by the Planning Commission— based on the findings of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2004-05— around 28.3 per cent households in the rural areas were living below poverty line. The report also recommends that the ratio of people entitled to BPL status should be revised upwards, to at least 50 per cent.

The expert group met several times, discussed matter with the states, civil societies, and a drafting committee was formed to prepare the proposal of the expert group. The report prepared by the committee was circulated among all the members of the group for their consideration.

A meeting was held on June 13 this year to discuss the report, along with some points made by the chairman, during which a broad consensus was arrived at.

Members were of the view that the committee should recommend universalisation of all social and economic entitlements and not fix criteria for identification of the poor.

The report stated that food security was needed for all and not only for those who lived below the poverty line. The number of food deficit people is at least double the number of those officially declared poor in India.

The members also admit that the government at present has little control over the district field machinery and panchayats. This restricts preparation of a separate BPL list and multiple lists were creating confusion. ‘One panchayat, one list’ was recommended in the report.

The calorie norm set by the government for conducting the BPL census does not hold good at present. This norm was based on the age-sex-activity distribution of the population for the year 1982-83, based on population census data of 1961 and 1971. This was activating a difference between the percentage of calorie-deficient population and poverty ratio estimated by the Planning Commission. The number of poor families in rural areas estimated by the Planning Commission was much more, adding to almost a population of five crore.

The members finally said in their report that the rural poverty ratio estimated by the Planning Commission, which is used as a cap for the beneficiary families for the poverty alleviation programme, is underestimated. 

Bathinda, September 21
In an attempt to overcome the monetary hurdle in their fight against the unbundling of PSEB, a joint forum of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta) and the Punjab Khet Majdoor Union activists has launched a ‘well-planned’ move to generate funds.

According to information available, activists of the forum have been divided in teams and are given village-wise assignments. Each team, comprising of 15-20 activists, visits farmers, PSEB employees and labourers door-to-door and seek funds to support the move against the unbundling of the PSEB.

Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary of the BKU (Ekta), informed that the campaign is functional in five districts—Bathinda, Sangrur, Mansa, Barnala and Moga, where the activists had been receiving a good response. In some villages, where the BKU was not strong, fresh units are also being formed.

He disclosed that in seven other districts—Muktsar, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Mohali— preliminary preparations have been completed. Soon they would start the visiting people at their doorstep, the leader said.

The unions have been collecting funds mainly in the name of the recent protest held at Chandigarh where police rained ‘lathi’ blows and water-canons on the protesters when the protest turned violent.

Issues like the treatment of those injured in the protest, repair of damaged vehicles and battling legal cases in courts are being highlighted to generate funds. Besides verbal requests, pamphlets giving details about their demands and future plans along with an urge to join the move are also being distributed.

Lachman Singh Sevewala, general secretary of the Punjab Khet Majdoor Union, said, “During the previous protests, it was observed that except for financial crisis, we were strong in every area. If the fund generation goes well, it will give a jolt to the government, which plans to suppress our move.”

Mansa: The Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan) has started fund collection move for the help of farmers who sustained injuries in the Chandigarh agitation. District president of the union Ram Singh Bhainibagha said that though union was demanding treatment for injured farmers from government side, union would not depend only on government.

He informed that farmers had been getting treatment from various hospitals. Kisan leader demanded compensation for damaged buses during agitation and Rs 10 lakhs compensation for farmers who were killed. — OC

Bathinda, September 21
Even as the Punjab government is slowly clearing the decks for unbundling the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) into separate entities, the PSEB Engineers’ Association (PSEBEA) is becoming more and more stringent in its criticism of the government’s proposed move.

HS Bedi, president of the PSEBEA, today said the state government should maintain flexibility on the issue “which has the potential to snowball into a major controversy if not handled properly.” He said the government should first come out with a proper policy and should inform the PSEBEA about the model it would be adopting after unbundling. Bedi said the government was trying to privatise the power utility, which was the backbone of this agrarian state, in the garb of unbundling it.

He added that if the government went ahead and unbundled the PSEB in a secretive manner without taking the PSEBEA into confidence, the engineers would be left with no option except to go on a total strike en masse.

The PSEBEA president further stated that despite repeated assurances given by the Punjab Chief Minister that no unilateral action would be taken and that the engineers’ body would be taken into confidence at every step, the state government was going ahead at full throttle to force a ‘failed’ model on the state.

He added that the engineers were neither against the Central Electricity Act – 2003 nor were they against reforms. They were against separating the Board into different units meant for generation, distribution and transmission of power that were not mandated under the said Electricity Act.

“Our stand has been vindicated by the latest judgement of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity, which held that it is not mandatory to unbundle the state electricity boards under the Electricity Act-2003. Any transition from one structure to another has to be well-conceived, planned and executed by involving all the stake holders,” Bedi claimed.

Faridkot, September 21
Hasras Kavi Darbar was organised on the occasion of the 'Aagman Purab' of Baba Sheikh Farid in the Baba Farid Public School at Faridkot, last night.

Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, MP, was the chief guest while District Magistrate VK.Meena presided over the function.

Inderjit Singh Khalsa, chairman of Baba Farid Educational Society and in-charge of Gurudwara Tilla Saheb and Amardeep Singh Bassi, president of the local municipal council, were also present on the occasion.

Gulshan, while addressing the gathering, said that Faridkot town has become a historical place since the state government gave the heritage status to the 'Aagman Purab' celebrations.

Noted poet Baldev Singh Azad started the Hasras Kavi Darbar with his satirical poems. Thereafter, Guranditta Sandhu, a local poet stimulated the audience with his funny verses. Ashok Chakradhar, the famous national-level poet delivered the message of love, brotherhood and moral values through his poems.

Pawan Dixit, Deepak Gupta from New Delhi, other local poets Tara Singh Khojepuri, Hardeep Dhillon, Nirmohi Faridkot, Jaswant Kailwi, Mangal Singh Brar and Mangat Kuljind also recited their poems.

An arts exhibition organized by the Baba Farid Art Society was inaugurated by District Magistrate VK Meena in the Sanjivni Hall of the Government Barjindra College here, today.

The artists from Ferozepur, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh had participated in this exhibition. As many as 40 paintings and other works of art were displayed here.

Janmeet Singh Brar, president of Sant Baba Farid Art Society and Gurdial Singh, secretary of the Red Cross Society, were also present during the inaugural ceremony. Hundreds of people had visited the exhibition today.

The DM also inaugurated the wrestling competition at Government Barjindra College. In the final match of the football competition, Dango Club, Ludhiana, beat Khalsa Football Club, Amritsar, and won the 17th Gold Cup Football tournament. Bibi Jagdish Kaur Dhillon, former MLA of Faridkot, presented the gold cup, memento and cash prize of Rs 9,100 to the winners and a cash prize of Rs 8,100 to the runners-up.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the district administration revealed that four dignitaries Dharam Kamiana, Harpreet Singh wrestler, Parveen Kala, chairman, Sahara Service Society Faridkot and Avtar Singh of Sahabana, district Ludhiana, would be honoured by CM Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Bengal Engineering Group (Bengal Sappers of Army), Roorkee and CRPF moved into the semi-finals of the 18th All India Baba Farid Gold Cup Hockey Tournament.

In the first quarter-final, CISF edged out BSF, Jalandhar 6-4 via the tiebreaker after both the teams were locked 2-2 in the stipulated time.

In the second quarterfinal, BEG, Roorkee defeated Baba Farid Hockey Club 3-1. At half-time, the Army team was leading 2-0. BEG opened their account when Kirpal Singh found the net in the 18th minute and then again in the 34th minute. In the second half, Ram Narain of the BEG scored the third goal for his team. The lone goal for the local boys was scored by Harpal in the last minutes of the game.

In the third quarter-final, CRPF defeated the Corps of Signals, Jalandhar 1-0. J Topan struck the lone goal. 

Bathinda, September 21
Annual Alumni Association meet of the Dasmesh Girls College of Education, Badal, was held in the college campus today.

On the occasion, the old students got the opportunity to meet Sanval Dhami, a Punjabi short story writer. Prof Kuldeep Singh of Panjab University and advocate Sikka were also present.

Students of batches, including 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 attended the meet. Dr S.S. Sangha welcomed the guests and the members of the alumni association.

Addressing the former students of the college, Sanval Dhami said that the institution is one of its kind in the rural area. The infrastructure and educational facilities that were provided in the rural areas were helpful in the overall development of the students. He also recited some lines of his poem.

Prof Kuldeep Singh also appreciated the facilities and environment provided by the institution. He further added that such types of meetings were necessary to maintain a healthy relationship between the old students and the institution.

Advocate Sikka appreciated the efforts of management, principal and staff of the college in making the institution great.

The students who had come from far and wide shared their views, their experiences and the moments spent in the college campus.

While remembering their old days, they became emotional. They said their attachment to the institution and staff-members is unique as individual attention is given in this institution.

Navjot, Sunita and Dazy, the teacher-in charges of Alumni Association encouraged the students to participate whole heartedly in the Alumni.

The new office-bearers of the association were elected on the occasion, Governor : Shelfi Jain, president: Shobna, vice-president: Meenakshi Khunger, secretory: Neetu Kathpal, executive members: Suman, Gagan, Jyoti, Suchita Gurpreet, Divya and Priyanka. 

Bathinda, September 21
Living up to their top billing, Shaheed Kanshi Ram College of Physical Education, Bhagomajra, beat Government Rajindra College, Bathinda, to win the Punjabi University inter-college cricket championship for women, which concluded here today.

Taking the field as favourites, everything went according to the script for the Bhagomajra girls as they nipped into the bud the challenge of their opponents by chalking out a comprehensive 8 wicket win.

Electing to bat, the local team managed to put up a measly total of 46 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. In reply, the Bhagomajra team took just 8.4 overs to score the winning runs, losing just 2 wickets in the process.

The wooden spoon was taken by the Government College, Malerkotla, who beat DAV College, Bathinda. — OC

Fazilka, September 21
Brilliant performance by Mudassar helped Delhi to clinch the Indo-Afghan-Bangladesh Twenty-20 International Tri-series which concluded here on Sunday evening.

Delhi defeated Afghanistan by 58 runs. Delhi scored 100 runs at the cost of eight wickets in 20 overs. Highest scorer for the team Sultan made quick 24 runs in 26 balls.

Chasing the target, Afghanistan were bowled out on 42 runs. Delhi medium pacer Mudassar took four wickets.He was declared man of the match.

Fazilka MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani gave away the prizes to the man of the match and the man of the series Afghan all-rounder Noor Ali. — OC

Mansa, September 21
The first rounds of cancer camp being organizing by the Roko Cancer Organisation in Mansa concluded on Sunday. The camps, held at five villages in Mansa, aimed at identifying breast cancer and creating awareness about the disease among the women.

State in-charge of the organization Dharminder said that camps were organised under the Nanhi Chhan programme.

Dharminder informed that next round of camps in Mansa would be held between September 24 and October 13. — OC

Muktsar, September 21
Rozy Barkandi, Managing Director, Muktsar Co-operative Bank, today assured a delegation of farmers that the process of giving loans to procure agricultural implements had been simplified and that they would no longer be harassed on this count.

Addressing the delegation, which cut across party lines, Barkandi, who is also a Zila Parishad member, said that if any farmer was having a problem in getting his loan sanctioned he could come and meet him directly.

He also assured farmers that all arrangements were in place keeping in view the paddy procurement season which was about to commence from October 1.

Barkandi also urged the farmers to immediately inform him if they faced any difficulty during the paddy procurement season so that he could be apprise the district administration officials of their problems. — OC

Moga, September 21
A youth killed his father and injured his brother by attacking them with a sharp-edged weapon over a property dispute at village Lande in the Baghapurana sub-division of Moga district, late last night.

As per police sources, Gurmail Singh attacked his father Karnail Singh and brother Surjit Singh. Both of them were brought to the district hospital here, where Karnail Singh succumbed to the injuries on Monday afternoon while Surjit was still under treatment.

Surjit, in a statement to the police, alleged that his brother was a drug addict and had his landholding, which was given to him by his father. Karnail was living with Gurmail but had given his parental house to Surjit due to which Gurmail was annoyed with his father and brother. Surjit alleged that his brother used to give threats to his father over the issue. On Sunday night, he again quarrelled and later attacked them.

The police has registered a criminal case under section 302 of the IPC against Gurmail Singh who was at large till filing of the report. — TNS