Bathinda, June 18
Scientists of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have come up with various recommendations, which could ensure enhanced yield to paddy growers and conserve water at the same time.

Conducting a number of researches and analysing the previous experiments in the backdrop of deficit rains and heavy groundwater, scientists of the PAU observed that even though paddy was a water-guzzling crop, farmers could conserve water, keep the soil healthy and get high yield if they followed the PAU recommendations.

Speaking to TNS, director of the PAU regional station, Bathinda, GS Buttar said, “The government's order banning paddy transplantation before June 10 was for the benefit of farmers as well as the state. Nowadays, the relative humidity has increased and evaporation has decreased, which help fields to retain water for a longer period.”

Reading out his findings, Buttar said a paddy field required standing water for 15 days in the beginning and later, the field should be watered two days after the soil had consumed the water fed to the field earlier. He mentioned that while adopting such a practice, the farmer must remain attentive so that the cracks do not occur in the field.

Meanwhile, he suggested farmers to install Tensiometer - an instrument to show the requirement of fresh irrigation with a three-colour display. The instrument is not costly but it helps a lot in saving water as farmers could avoid unnecessary irrigation.

“During various surveys, we observed that the labourers transplant paddy saplings at a distance more than what is required. Resultantly, the yield is less. We suggest for a bit dense transplantation with an average of almost 33 plants per square meter,” said Buttar.

About the use of fertilisers, the director said the farmers must avoid the excessive use of fertilisers in the haste of getting more yield. “Almost every farmer uses phosphorus as fertiliser for the wheat crop. We suggest that the farmers should not use it while transplanting paddy sapling in that very field as the wheat crop uses just 25 per cent of the total phosphorus and the soil does not require fresh application,” said Buttar.

Buttar said, “If required, we recommend farmers to use 110 kg of urea in three splits. The first dose should be given at the time of puddling. The next dose should be applied after three weeks of transplantation and the final one after a gap of three weeks.”

Recollecting his study work over the menace of heavy groundwater in Malwa, Buttar said, “With continuous use of groundwater, which is highly contaminated and toxic, the fertility of the land suffers badly and the soil starts changing its colour."

Ferozepur, June 18
After having fed up with the blatant and continued ignorance of their grievances by the ruling SAD-BJP combine of Punjab, the residents of about six villages of this district have decided to solve certain issues on their own.

They took up the task to clean up the Sodhi Nagar distributary so that water could reach the villages located at its tail-end and the farmers could get enough water to irrigate fields for paddy cultivation.

The residents of Ratta Khera, Kada Boda, Bhamba Landa, Sodhi Nagar, Ittawali and some other villages pooled money to collect enough funds to carry out the desilting of Sodhi Nagar distributary and its different minors. “The money being spent by us is fetching double benefits for us. On the one hand, it would enable us to irrigate our fields and on the other, it would be a community service also,” said Surjan Singh, sarpanch, village Kada Boda.

The residents of these villages have been facing problems due to non-cleaning of distributary and minors by the irrigation department despite the fact that the state irrigation minister, Janmeja Singh Sekhon belonged to the district.

A section of irrigation officials, who have been supervising the de-silting operation, said so far about four kilometres of the area of the distributary and minors had been cleared of weeds and silt.

Lakhwinder Singh, who has been taking care of the de-silting work, said the distributary and its various minors were cleaned by the residents by arranging enough money on their own in 2008 as well.

Prem Kumar, executive engineer, irrigation said a project for brick lining the Sodhi Nagar distributary had been prepared by the state government but it could not be implemented due to paucity of funds. On being asked as to why the irrigation department had not de-silted the Sodhi Nagar distributary, he said he had joined his present post recently and hence he was not aware of this thing.

Meanwhile, Mukesh Kumar, junior engineer, irrigation department, said it was hoped that the state government would release funds for cleanliness within a few days. 

Bathinda, June 18
The Bathinda Municipal Corporation (BMC) today launched a drive of removing caps (dishes) from over the mobile towers illegally installed in the city.

Before taking the step, the BMC authorities had issued a number of notices to the owners as well as contractors of about 20 mobile towers, which were raised illegally throughout the city. On failing to collect the compounded fine from the persons concerned, the BMC authorities even wrote to the electricity department to disconnect power supply to the towers but all went in vein.

On the first day, the BMC staff removed four dishes from a mobile tower installed on a building located on the Barnala road in the city. While one of the dishes was of the Reliance mobiles, the operators of others could not be identified.

Further, the BMC staff went to the Goniana road but the height of the tower posed a hurdle and they had to return empty-handed. Later, a well-equipped team of the BMC visited the Bank Bazar but did not act after the contractor of the tower gave a written assurance to deposit the entire fine amounting to Rs 92,000 by Saturday.

Speaking over phone, BMC commissioner Ravi Bhagat said, “Even as the annual fee per tower is quite nominal (Rs 5000 per tower), the contractors (owners) are unwilling to deposit the same. We have short-listed the towers that have been raised illegally. These would be removed in the days to come if the due fee is not deposited.”

Bathinda, June 18
General manager (GM) of the Northern Railway (NR) SK Budlakodi today instructed the railway officials at the Bathinda station to continue according top priority to amenities for passengers.

Budlakodi was here during the inception of the railway section from Katar Singh Wala to Jind, excluding Jind, which falls in the Delhi division of the NR. The GM along with the senior officials of the NR reached here early in the morning and started the inspection of the section after 8 am.

Earlier, the GM visited the passengers’ waiting room at the Bathinda station. The GM instructed the official concerned to repair one of the water coolers installed at the waiting room at the earliest.

During his inspection to Katar Singh Wala to Jind, the GM lent an ear to the grievances of the commuters and assured them of solving their problem as soon as possible. 

Abohar, June 18
A senior worker of the Congress was allegedly physically pushed out by the staff as he exchanged hot words with the BJP-run Municipal Council president Shivraj Goyal during an auction of the council property in the town hall here on Friday.

The worker, who runs a commercial establishment on the Gaushala road here, was interested in purchasing a plot in the abandoned meat market and questioned the president over the alleged arbitrate manner adopted for the auction.

The trouble also arose when other interested bidders resented that terms and conditions for the long-awaited auction had been preserved as a closely guarded secret.

There were reports in the local media also that Ravinder Singh, clerk in the engineering branch, when contacted on Thursday, refused to disclose the terms and conditions unless asked by the senior authorities.

There was no denial on the part of the council to this. Even today, those present including Rajeev Raheja and Sukhminder Singh Dhillon regretted that drinking water was not made available even to the media persons during the six hour session, some of the ceiling fans in the town hall were also not working, adding to the discomforts of the citizens.

The council could not find potential buyer for the four commercial plots located in the old municipal waterworks opposite its rest house that was being used as official residence for the past three decades by the Deputy Superintendent of Police ever since it was constructed. The official bid for the plots ranged between Rs 116-160 lakh.

Interestingly, some of the colonisers, who had illegally developed colonies without paying development charges to the council, were also present to express interest in the deals today by proxy.

There were unruly scenes when the authorities refused to approve some bids even when these were above the reserve price in the old meat market area. Four plots in the old butchery area were sold out comfortably.

The saffron party had faced opposition to the auction within its own ranks as well. Ajit Singh, former president of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, criticised the council for attempting to dispose of entire immovable property to clear the debts and asked what source of income would be available for development works in the coming days.

Notably, the dispute over auction of 25 acre municipal land near Indira Nagari was lying pending in the Apex Court, he reminded. 

Ferozepur, June 18
In a significant judgment, the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, Ferozepur, while bringing the Suvidha Centre being run by the district administration into the ambit of Consumer Protection Act, fined the local Suvidha Centre for providing deficient services to one of its consumers.

The Consumer Forum comprising Sanjay Garg, president, Meena Bishnoi and Tarlok Singh (both members) while deciding a complaint moved by Pushpinder Pal Dhall in connection with inordinate delay caused in issuing him renewed passport in the recent past, held that Suvidha Centre, which had been doing commercial activities as it had charged facilitation charges from the applicants, was liable for deficient in services and indulging in unfair trade practices

The Forum held that as Suvidha Centre had been doing commercial activities hence it was directed to pay to the complainant Rs 5,000 as consolidated compensation for mental agony, pain and harassment and inconvenience suffered by the complainant.

Dhall, a resident of Talwandi Bhai, filed a complaint against the Deputy Commissioner, Suvidha Centre, Ferozepur, Regional Passport Offices, Chandigarh and Jalandhar and Urmila Rani, clerk, Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar, pleading that he had applied for renewal of his passport with the Suvidha Centre in 2009 and deposited all the necessary documents along with required fees but the same was not issued to him.

The complainant approached the Suvidha Centre time and again to inquire about application but could not get any satisfactory answer. The complainant served a legal notice to the DC and Suvidha Centre. Later, he shifted his residence to Urmur Tanda in Hoshiarpur district and applied with the Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar for renewal of his passport through the Suvidha Centre again.

Despite many visits, the passport was not issued to the complainant. Pleading deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite parties, the complainant claimed opposite parties must be directed to issue him the renewed passport forthwith with Rs 90, 000 as compensation for mental agony, pain and harassment and Rs 8,800 as litigation expenses.

Though Dhall made Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur, Regional Passport Offices, Chandigarh and Jalandhar and clerk of RPO, Jalandhar party in his complaint, the Forum held Suvidha Centre liable for deficient in services and directed it pay compensation to him.

The Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh and Jalandhar and Urmila Rani, clerk, RPO, Jalandhar joined the Consumer Forum proceedings through their counsels. Both Deputy Commissioner and in-charge, Suvidha Centre did not appear in the Forum after filing their respective replies to the complaint and hence they were proceeding against Ex parte by the Forum. 

Ferozepur, June 18
Kheti Virasat Mission, an NGO involved in fight against the environmental disaster, while welcoming the assurance given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he would consider the proposal of setting up a cancer hospital in the Malwa region of Punjab, urged that Punjab needed a fresh thinking and bold initiatives to deal with the present reality of severe health catastrophe.

Umendra Dutt, executive director, Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), in a press note issued here, said the establishment of cancer detection and cancer hospital in Malwa is the need of the state.

For this, urgent funds may be provided to all medical colleges in the state to establish oncology departments. Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research Chandigarh may be provided funds and asked to supervise establishment of these departments.

Fazilka, June 18
Faxilka town today witnessed a bandh as commercial and other establishments remained closed till afternoon today on the call given by the Valmiki Panchayat in protest against the “denial of justice” to the kin of Natesh Kumar, who died under mysterious circumstances in the Gang Canal a few days ago.

Natesh, a student of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur, died under mysterious circumstances while he was taking bath in the Gang canal along with his classmates.

While the cops dubbed it as a case of drowning, Neelu Kumar, father of deceased alleged that his son had been murdered. The members of the Valmiki Panchayat first took out demonstration in the city, raised slogans against the Punjab government, blocked traffic on the Fazilka-Abohar (National Highway Number 10) road for more than one hour and then submitted a memorandum to the SDM, Ajay Sood for registering a case of murder under section 302 of the IPC against the classmates of Natesh.

Interestingly, a case under section 304 of the IPC had been registered at the police station, Kulgadi, in connection with the death of Natesh against his classmates. No arrest had been made in that connection so far.

Meanwhile, TS Sidhu, principal of college, said police authorities must carry out proper investigation into the case before giving clean chit to anybody. 

Abohar, June 18
A litigant hailing from village Gumjal of this sub-division, which shares its boundaries with the last village of Sriganganagar district of neighbouring Rajasthan, has to travel about 160 kilometres for reaching Ferozepur, the district headquarter, to attend the sessions courts.

Similarly, a litigant belonging to village Wajidpura Bhoma, situated at the Punjab-Rajasthan border, has to cover equal distance to attend court proceedings at Ferozepur.

Narinder Kumar Garg, president, Bar Association, Abohar, said, “As the litigants belonging to this area have to travel long distances for cases in Ferozepur-based courts, the Bar Association has been making continuous efforts to get a court of additional district and session judge in this town.”

Such a step by the Punjab and Haryana High Court would bring a great relief for the litigants, who had been covering 320 kilometres distance in a single day to attend court proceedings at Ferozepur. Those litigants, who had been using their own vehicles, could reach their destination on time while those who had been travelling by buses, reached their dwellings in odd hours at night, he claimed.

He said the Council had submitted a memorandum to the Justice LN Mittal, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, who was the administrative judge of Ferozepur division to set up a court of additional district and session judge in the local court complex, which had got required infrastructure.

“It would also save the poor litigants from incurring huge money to attend courts at Ferozepur,” he added. Moreover, the accused in majority of cases pertaining to smuggling of narcotics under the NDPS Act, pending in session courts at Ferozepur, belonged to Abohar sub-division.

The local judicial complex, which was under construction, had a capacity to accommodate the courts of six judicial officials. Only three judicial officials were working at present and hence the court of additional district and session judge could be set up easily here, he said.

Fazilka, June 18
Karnail Singh (19), a resident of village Noorshah, who got engaged five months ago and the date of his marriage was yet to be fixed, was reportedly buried alive in a well as the earth caved in. As per the information, Karnail was digging well in his field near the Sutlej River at village Noorshah.

His father Mal Singh and two brothers Jaswant Singh and Chhinder Singh were also at work outside the well. Suddenly, the sandy wet mud caved in and Karnail Singh was buried under it. Mal Singh and his sons with the help of the villagers removed the mud.

However, by the time the mud was removed, Karnail Singh had died due to suffocation. Officials of the civil administration and medical team of the civil hospital reached the site but he could not be saved. Postmortem of the deceased was conducted at the local civil hospital.

Sriganganagar/Abohar, June 18
Four persons, three of them married women, reportedly committed suicide today in different villages of the region, sources said.

As per details, one Gopal Ram of Salasar, who was working at a brick kiln, drowned in a water reservoir near the brick kiln at village Siyagawali.

Shanti Devi Meghwal (45), reportedly jumped into a water tank today at village Biggaramsara. The villagers rushed the spot on getting the information but she had drowned by then.

Meanwhile, the body of Santosh Rani (40) was found hanging inside her house at village Kisamidesar today morning. One Vidya Devi of village Nihalkhera near Abohar died after consuming poisonous substance at her in-laws residence at village Lathanwali. Her parents have rushed to the village.

In another mishap, Bhuri Devi (70), who had allegedly been pushed down by her son Ghanshyam for exchanging hot words with her daughter-in-law at village Pemasar died after she was rushed to the nearest hospital. A youth identified as Harpreet Singh succumbed to his injuries today. He was injured while averting collision with stray cattle in Gharsana area last evening.

Bathinda, June 18
The registration of a local ultrasound centre has been suspended and the equipment seized after the district health authorities found discrepancies in the record maintained by the centre.

In a press note issued here, Civil Surgeon Dr Inder Dayal Goyal said a checking was conducted at the ultrasound centres in the city today. The registration of the ultrasound centre of the Kalra Hospital here had been suspended following the detection of discrepancies in its records, he added. The Civil Surgeon further informed that the ultrasound machine of the centre had been sealed.