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Govt move may hit promotion of paddy transplanters
Other depts fail govt’s back-up plan, endorse PSEB staff strike
Unbundling will hike power tariffs, claims CPM
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Undertrial escapes, 3 cops booked
Who will open the NC library?
Anti-Encroachment Drive
15 volunteer teachers climb up water tank
VVIP’s sojourn to the city
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Govt move may hit promotion of paddy transplanters
Jalandhar, April 10 Exploitation of the subsidy by private manufacturing companies is being cited as the reason by the government behind the move. The state government has decided to decrease the amount of subsidy to Rs 75,000 this year. Previously, subsidy to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh or 50 percent of the total cost of implement, which ever was less, was disbursed to farmers. Experts working on the promotion of this concept are of the opinion that decrease in the subsidy will definitely dent the popularity of this concept. Farmers usually show reluctance in the adoption of newer technologies, both due to established faith in older techniques and high input cost. Subsidies are meant to provide assistance to farmers to purchase such implements, which eventually become popular after usage for a few years. “As the paddy transplanter is a new concept, farmers have yet to adopt it widely as a technique. Ideally, subsidy should persist for some more years”, said an agricultural engineer, who is associated with research studies pertaining to the paddy transplanter for years. “Farmers have not fully adopted this technique and still they are
apprehensive to adopt it. We still need to rigorously promote its use,” said Dr. MS Gill, Director-Extension, PAU, Ludhiana. However, some sections of experts are of the opinion that the government had taken the decision as manufacturers were misusing the option of subsidies by increasing the cost of implements in the recent past. Chairman, Punjab State Farmers Commission, Dr. GS Kalkat said
he himself recommended the revision of subsidies. “Eyeing the large subsidy amount, private manufacturing firms had increased the price of tranplanters. Now, with fixed subsidy, farmers will buy the implement after a good bargain. Revision of subsidy will not cause any kind of loss to farmers”, said Dr. Kalkat. While talking to The Tribune, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Agriculture, SS Thandal, also echoed the
same view. PAU is working to develop the transplanter since 1978 and the university introduced it for the first time in the field in the mid eighties. However, scientists had to halt the work in 2000-01 owing to the compromised response of farmers towards this technique, as cheap manual labor, compared to the initial and working cost of the transplanter, was available in those years. Scarcity and costly manual labor have forced authorities to turn towards the use of tranplanters again in 2007-08. |
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Other depts fail govt’s back-up plan, endorse PSEB staff strike
Nawanshahr, April 10 The PSEB employees, accompanied with the employees of other departments, held a gate rally here against the alleged privatisation of the board. On the other hand, DSP Satpal Singh Bhangu said the police had made elaborate security arrangements at the PSEB power stations and offices in the area to thwart any attempt to disrupt the power supply as well as law and order. The public should not face any inconvenience due to the strike by PSEB employees, he added. Strike on April 15-16
Jalandhar: The joint forum of the PSEB Employees Federation and Technical Services Union (TSU) announced a two-day strike against the government move of unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSeB). The decision to go on a strike on April 15 and 16 was taken at a meeting organised here by both organisations. Releasing a joint press note, general secretary of the PSEB Employees Federation Amrik Singh Masitaan and president of the TSU said the government must clear the air before taking the step of unbundling the board. They also criticised the statements of the Chief Minister in which he said the employees of the PSEB could cause damage to the property of the board. |
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Unbundling will hike power tariffs, claims CPM
Jalandhar, April 10 Mangat Ram Pasla, party state secretary, said the decision would lead to an increase in power tariffs that were already on the high side. This would put an additional
burden on the common man who was already burdened with the hike in the prices of essential commodities. He said dividing the board in two independent bodies was both unscientific and anti people. With this the property of the board worth crores would pass into the hands of profiteers who will earn more by regularly hiking the power tariff. Pasla also condemned the government for misleading the masses by saying that unbundling would not mean privitisation. This was far from the truth and was mere propaganda, he alleged. The state was also invoking the repressive Essential Services Maintenance Act to deal with the anticipated agitation by the board employees. Already the police were picking up union leaders, peasants, trade unionists and putting them behind bars. He urged the government to shun this confrontationist attitude to strengthen democratic values. |
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Undertrial escapes, 3 cops booked
Amritsar, April 10 According to information, he dodged the police party from jail, which was deputed to keep an eye on him. Majitha Road police station has registered a case under sections 222, 223, 224 of the IPC against three policemen, Purshotam Das, Darshan Singh and Narinder Singh. Harish Behal, SHO, said Avtar Singh, a resident of Khurmania village, was caught by the Special Narcotics Cell (now State Special Operation Cell) about five years back for possessing explosives and narcotics. He was admitted to the hospital on February 20. He said raids were being conducted to arrest the culprit.—
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Who will open the NC library?
Phagwara, April 10 In such a situation, the librarian has asked the NC authorities to depute another peon who would follow the library timings. The library is opened for public between 8.30 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 6.30 pm and it remains closed on evening hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Beri says the woman peon has showed the instructions of the state government that no female employee could be summoned on duty before 9 am and kept on duty after 5 pm. Meanwhile, on Saturday the library was opened 45 minutes late than the scheduled opening time and many readers went back disappointed seeing the library in locks. |
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42 religious shrines demolished
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, April 10 However, the officials associated with the drive had to face agitation of people as followers of a religion felt that their sentiments were hurt following partial demolition of a religious place located on 100-feet road. Subsequently, the people gathered around the place in the morning and raised slogans against the authorities. They also tried to forcibly close the markets around the religious place. However, they were chased away by the police. Another religious site was demolished on the GT road. The commissioner said both the sites were constructed illegally on public places.
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15 volunteer teachers climb up water tank
Kapurthala, April 10 The volunteers took the move on a day when their union, led by its state president Ajmer Singh Aulakh and district chief Paramjeet Singh, carried out a protest march in Sultanpur Lodhi, home town of Education Minister Upinderjeet Kaur. The civil and police officials reacted sharply after getting the news on volunteers climbing up a tank. Though initially volunteers refused to descend, SDM Kuldeep Singh Chandi and DSP Gurmeet Singh persuaded them assuring a meeting with Director General (Schools) Krishan Kumar on Monday. Meanwhile, members of the union gathered at a park in Sultanpur Lodhi from there they took out a protest march in the city which culminated at Talwandi Chowk where the agitators blocked traffic. Earlier, the representatives of the union also met Upinderjeet Kaur but she reportedly conveyed her helplessness in getting them regular jobs. However, she assured to consider their other demands sympathetically. |
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VVIP’s sojourn to the city
Jalandhar, April 10 The special treatment that the residents of the posh area have been getting is because of the visit of a dignitary to his hometown. Till the time the dignitary was in the city, there was no power cut. As he left for his area of working last evening, the cuts were reimposed in the area this morning, as per
the schedule applied in the rest of the city. A PSEB official confirmed this to The Tribune here today. He said while the dignitary had asked for a hotline, he was told that this was not possible for individual houses. The dignitary is then said to have contacted the higher authorities, who allowed the provision for 24-hour power service in his
area till his sojourn in the home town. On the orders of the top officials, there was no cut in the area that received power supply through Guru Nanak Nagar feeder on April 6, 7 and 8. Many PSEB employees are said to have raised a hue and cry on the issue pointing out that the VVIPs wanting continuous power supply should rather stay at Circuit House during their visits as the place had a hotline connection. The residents of the area who had become much used to the power cuts for quite sometime were also in for a surprise when they realised on the second or the third day that the cuts were not being imposed in their area only. As they started inquiring about the matter, they too learnt the reason for the same. The word spread in the entire area with people gossiping, “We are lucky enough to be living in the colony of a VVIP.” Those who felt a bit envious were heard quipping, “A VVIP has all the facilities for a power backup. I do not really realise the need
for him to get a hotline connection.” |
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A campaign to promote the use of paddy transplanters in the state is likely to bear the brunt of government decisions as the state government has revised its policy of subsidy on this advanced hi-tech implement.
An interesting controversy has arisen at the Phagwara Nagar Council Library where the librarian and peon have developed differences over scheduled opening time.
On one hand, Librarian Hari Dev Beri says he could not open the library on scheduled time (8.30 am) as he is involved in the Census duty due to which he could not return till 8 in the evening, on the other the peon, who is a woman identified as
Rekha, cites state government instructions to come not before 9 am.
Amritsar, April 10
