Abohar, December 8
The ginning and pressing operation in more than 250 mills dotting Punjab have been adversely affected as they have started facing an acute shortage of raw cotton as its arrival has come down to 12000 bales in the market against the demand for 40000 bales daily.

The large gap in demand and supply of raw cotton has forced owners of almost all the mills to run their units for less than eight hours a day. Some of the owners have even started running their units for only two days a week.

“If the availability of raw material and its prices are not stabilised, by the end of January next year, about 60 per cent of the total ginning and pressing mills of Punjab will be closed despite the fact that the closing date is March 31, 2010,” claimed Bhagwan Dass Bansal, President, Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginners Association, adding that hike in domestic consumption, cut in crop size and panic buying by exporters had given unprecedented rise in the price of raw cotton.

He disclosed that circumstances, which had developed in cotton business in Punjab in this year, were witnessed in 1994 also when the crop size was down, and demand as well as prices of raw cotton increased. During that year, the ginning and pressing mills were adversely affected.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that the arrival of raw cotton in Punjab markets had also come down due to fact that a significant section of farmers had held back their produce in anticipation of prices going up as the demand was increasing. They were hoping to fetch more profits if they were able to dispose of their produce at higher prices.

“Not only this, the farmers are now busy in sowing of wheat and have not been unloading raw cotton into markets. This has led to decline in the arrival of cotton in Punjab, Haryana, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh circles of Rajasthan,” claimed Ashok Kapur, former President, North India Cotton Association.

Bhushan Kumar, a mill owner, claimed that if the prevailing situation in cotton business remained unchanged, they would not be able to meet their overhead expenditure. The mills were running at bare minimum inventories at the moment and owners were not able to stock the raw material for a month or so due to its high prices and less availability.

Rakesh Rathi, President, North India Cotton Association, said that pressure in cotton markets would be eased when the arrival of raw cotton in central India would pick up in the coming weeks.

Abohar, December 8
More than 1.5 lakh citizens in this sub-divisional town were deprived of drinking water supply on Monday reportedly to reduce pressure on the sewerage disposal works after the death of a kid, who had slipped in an abandoned water tank that had recently been filled with sewerage water near the disposal works.

As per the information available, two-year-old Aman, son of Kuldeep Kumar, a resident of street 6 in Indira Nagari, was fished out by some residents, who responded to the alarm raised by his grandmother. However, later the doctors who attended on him in emergency ward in the Nehru Memorial civil hospital declared him brought dead.

The residents regretted that the Municipal Council had not raised boundary wall around the disposal works that has led to a number of casualties in the recent past. The victims included daughter of a class-IV employee, deployed at the disposal works.

Intriguingly, Indira Nagari makes a part of ward number 11 that is represented by the present head of the Municipal Council, the residents rued. Sewerage water was filled in the abandoned tank after breach in the disposal water channel that remains to be plugged adequately, the residents added.

Notably, the ruling politicians in successive governments had liberally allowed people to encroach upon more than 50 acres of land that had been used to dispose of sewerage and rain water through open channels since 1960. Even the Improvement Trust had been reluctant in pursuing its plan to raise the housing colony over this land. Indira Nagari was developed here by the encroachers and some of them were yet to clear the dues against the allotment of the residential plots that were under their illegal possession.

During the Congress-led government headed by Captain Amarinder Singh, about three km long sewerage disposal water channel was constructed to dispose of surplus sewerage water that is used by scores of farmers to grow vegetables across the Abohar-Killianwali road. The channel had faced breaches many a time since the council had not bothered to get it repaired during the past three years. The situation deteriorates when the farmers stop using dirty water even before the rainy season.

They had been demanding that the channel should be extended to dispose of the surplus water through a drain but the state government had not earmarked funds for the proposal.

The choking of disposal works has resulted in accumulation of dirty water that overflowed in Indira Nagari, Gobind Nagari and Nanak Nagari besides other localities making life a hell for them.

Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav had recommended Rs 2.5 crore sewerage renovation plan to the state government but that has not been given a nod so far.

Ferozepur, December 8
Two separate criminal cases- each at police stations, Kulgadi and city Ferozepur were registered against Yashpal and Pravesh Bhandari (both grade-II inspectors ) of Punsup for their alleged involvement in committing a fraud to the tune of Rs 65 lakh with the department.

Official sources said the two inspectors had allegedly facilitated the owner of M/s Sukhwinder Singh and sons, a commission agent firm, running two shops — one each at Sande Hashm village and the other in the grain market of Ferozepur — to misappropriate paddy worth Rs 65 lakh.

Additional Managing Director (Punsup) Amarjit Singh arrived here today to carry out preliminary investigation. District Manager SK Sharma said the fraud surfaced when the paddy bags procured through M/s Sukhwinder Singh and Sons were found missing during the lifting process. Amarjit Singh said as the record pertaining to procurement of paddy and payments made to commission agents was in custody of both the alleged inspectors, he had been facing problems in conducting the preliminary inquiry in the case.

However, he expressed ignorance as to whether the two inspectors had been placed under suspension or not.

Ferozepur, December 8
Additional sessions judge JS Bhinder has sentenced Gurcharan Singh, a resident of this town, to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) after holding him guilty of possessing inorganic intoxicants in a large quantity.

Besides, a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh has also been imposed on the accused. In case of any default in paying the fine, three more years would be added to his actual sentence.

As per the details, Gurcharan Singh was arrested after his house was raided by the police, following a secret information, pertaining to his involvement in possession and sale of intoxicating tablets. During the raid, intoxicating tablets and capsules numbering 1.87 lakh were recovered from his possession.

Sriganganagar, Dec 8
The Rail Sangharsh Samiti in Srikaranpur has resumed its agitation to resent deferring of gauge conversion work on the Sriganganagar-Sarupsar rail track by one month.

While leading the dharna today, Samiti convener Baldev Raj said the foundation stone of the project was laid a decade back but the work had not been completed so far due to the failure of the Railways in releasing adequate funds. This had virtually shattered the business in Srikaranpur and neighbouring areas.

The conversion of meter gauge to broad gauge is considered significant as it would pave way for running express trains from Abohar to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra besides linking cantonments of Jaisalmer and Udhampur through the Abohar-Fazilka-Ferozepur section.

Since the rail link between Abohar and Fazilka was expected to become functional by March next, priority needs to be given to complete the gauge conversion work on the Sriganganagar-Sarupsar section also before that, pointed out Samiti members. — OC