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Black bug attacks sugarcane crop
Rain-hit discoloured grain has few takers
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Riding on wheels of change
5 held with Rs 9.5 lakh fake currency notes
Counterfeit currency seized from goods train
IIT-ROPAR
Left parties open to pact with Manpreet
Public money spent on treatment of CM’s wife
Wives of martyred policemen seek more benefits
Rationalise MSP, demands BJP Kisan Morcha
No scarcity of BT cottonseed, says govt
Jockeys display outstanding skills
Protest against ‘encroachment’
Verification Fee From Migrants
Teaching Patriotism
Panel to identify fake varsities
Khalsa College Imbroglio
JEs to begin rallies from April 27
IRB men give lessons on cleanliness
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Black bug attacks sugarcane crop
Rajpura/Sirhind, April 24 Admitting the loss, officials of the Agriculture Department said Saunti village of Amloh block in Fatehgarh Sahib, Chawa and Bhari villages in Khanna and circles of Rajpura were the worst affected. Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) Jaswinder Singh said the insect was active between April to June and farmers had been advised to monitor their fields at regular intervals. They were advised to spray 350 ml Chlorpyriphos 20 EC with 400 liters water with knapsack sprayers. “The spray should target the whorl to reduce number of insects. The insect enters the plant when it is soft at an early stage and then it multiplies. This leads to crop damage and if ignored could damage the entire farm. Several farmers, unaware of the bug, were informed by the officials of the Agriculture Department and were directed to spray medicines,” Jaswinder said Farmers said lucrative MSP and easy marketing had increased the area under sugarcane crop over the past few years. Sugarcane was a lucrative option for farmers as its residue (press mud) was also a rich source of organic manure and was used in crop production. “Sugarcane residue can be used as manure in farms to grow vegetables or even flowers in pots as it is a rich source of organic matter and nutrients for crop production. But farmers do not take residue with them and immediately leave with empty tractor trailers after selling their produce in mills,” Jaswinder said. Though farmers fail to use sugarcane as organic manure in their fields but some brick kiln owners have purchased residue to be used as fuel in kilns. Officials said area under sugarcane crop was increasing and this year it may cross 5,500 hectares in Amloh sugar mill area, comprising villages located in Patiala, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib. Despite the fact that experts do not recommend growing sugarcane in April, farmers are still buying sugarcane seeds.
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Rain-hit discoloured grain has few takers
Moga, April 24 Taking cognisance of these complaints, Commissioner of Ferozepur division Raminder Singh, MD of Markfed Ajit Singh Pannu, District Magistrate of Moga Dr VN Zade and officials of the district administration visited the villages today. The officials visited the grain markets at Moga, Dharamkot, Fatehgarh Panjtoor, Kot-ise-Khan and Lohara and inspected the quality of wheat. They interacted with the local officials of the purchase agencies and the farmers. The DM has written a letter to the Chief Secretary of the state through the Directorate of Food and Civil Supplies to take up the matter of discolouration of wheat grain at the appropriate level to get relaxation in the norms of purchase so that the farmers do not suffer as a result of nature’s fury. These officials later visited six more grain markets at Bhinder Kalan, Sadda Singh Wala, Daulatpura, Kapure, Bohna and Mehron villages, which have been allocated to the FCI for purchase. The farmers and arhtiyas in these villages brought into the notice of the officials that slow rate of purchase. FCI officials denied these allegations. Dr Zade has asked the Directorate of Food and Civil Supplies to attach state procurement agencies along with the FCI in these villages to smoothen the procurement process. Meanwhile, spokesman of the administration Nath Singh Buttar claimed that procurement has started picking up in the district. “Procurement agencies have purchased 1.60 lakh MT of wheat till Saturday evening,” he said.
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Riding on wheels of change
Chandigarh, April 24 The scheme was finalised by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal prior to his departure for China last week. Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal will finalise the cycle design.
“We want to achieve the dual purpose of facilitating education as well as spreading gender awareness”, an official said. The design will be approved by Sukhbir Badal on his return from the foreign trip. The aim of the scheme is primarily to encourage girls to continue their studies, even if their schools are at some distance from their homes. The district education officers will be the overall in charge of the scheme that will be implemented constituency-wise. The bicycles will be in special colours to make these distinct from other ones in the market. There were an estimated 1.16 lakh girl students in Class XI and XII in various government schools last year. “We hope the scheme will have a trickle down effect that will help bring more girls to schools and institutions of higher learning”, a senior official of the education department said. Similar schemes have been implemented in other states ruled by NDA allies. Karnataka gives away bicycles worth Rs 23 crore each year while Bihar spent Rs 174.36 crore on cycles for 8,71,000 schoolgirls last year. The West Bengal CM gave away 47,000 cycles to Class VIII girls prior to the elections last month. The Orissa government has given bicycles to 1.16 lakh girl students in Class X.
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5 held with Rs 9.5 lakh fake currency notes
Some gang members had also been lodged in the Ferozepur Central Jail a few months ago. In the jail, they met some Pakistan nationals who provided them mobile phone numbers of Pakistan-based smugglers and got them into the business of smuggling and circulating
FICNs. Apart from arresting five members of these two gangs, the police also managed to recover FICNs worth over Rs 9.5 lakh. The operation against these gangs was launched jointly by the local CIA police station and Zira police station after a tip-off. Sarbjit Singh, in charge, CIA police station, and Palwinder Singh, SHO, Zira police station, led the operation. Kaustab Sharma, district police chief, said that three members of a gang, who were identified as Malkit Singh, Makhan Singh and Balwant Singh, were arrested while they were going on two motorcycles to deliver FICNs worth Rs 1.45 lakh to some customers, whose identity has not yet been disclosed by them. Two members of another gang identified as Jagtar Singh Tari and Joga Singh, who were also using a motorcycle to deliver FICNs worth more than Rs 8 lakh were arrested by another police team. Another miscreant identified as Sukha, who was an associate of Tari and Joga, managed to escape the police net. Kaustab Sharma said that it was being suspected that these suspects had brought FICNs from Pakistan to India from a point located on the Indo-Pak border in Mamdot region.
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Counterfeit currency seized from goods train
Amritsar, April 24 A custom official confirming the incident said that a team led by Balkar
Chand, Superintendent, Customs, made the seizure. The currency was of a superior quality and was smuggled by Pakistan-based smugglers, said the official.
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IIT-ROPAR
Dr Chidambaram will inaugurate RuTAG on May 3. Such centres have been running in the older IITs. Officials say that RuTAG will help develop a network of government agencies and NGOs that will aid in research and development intervention in the rural sector. “The aim of RuTAG is to upgrade rural systems to effective levels for boosting rural economy. We will identify new problem areas in the rural sector and provide research and development intervention whenever necessary,” said IIT officials. Also, the study of nuclear astrophysics is bound to get a momentum with the setting up of a nuclear physics instrumentation lab at the institute. “This lab would help in radiation detection and high-spin isomeric state studies,” said a department official. The IIT is also setting up a high-performance computation lab with a virtual reality cave environment. Going a step ahead in international collaborations, the IIT-Ropar is setting-up a bio energy research centre in collaboration with Aston University, UK. It is working on a project which envisages producing power from bio fuel. The project is so modelled as to help at least three households produce their own power from bio fuel. The first prototype plant utilising agri-waste to produce energy shall be inaugurated in early September. The IIT Ropar is the only new institute to have inked a letter of intent with Simon Fraser University. Under the agreement, students from the IIT will undertake research at the university’s Surrey campus in computer science, mechatronics and clean energy. Both institutions are working on the idea of a joint PhD programme. The IIT has more girl students than any of the other new institutes. It has 33 girl students, the maximum being seven in the electronic engineering batch of 2010. The 2008 and 2009 batches have 10 girl students each and the 2010 batch 13. “For the academic year 2010-11, we have even a greater number of girl students enrolled in BTech. Besides, we have women scholars in various areas of research,” said the Dean, Prof BK Dhindaw. There are in all 209 students at the institute- 36 from Delhi, 35 from Uttar Pradesh, 27 each from Rajasthan and Haryana and 19 from Punjab. Apart from the BTech students, the IIT has 26 research
scholars. (Concluded)
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Left parties open to pact with Manpreet
A decision to this effect was taken at a joint coordination meeting of both parties. Besides holding joint rallies in 12 districts, the left parties are likely to chalk out an election strategy with Manpreet Badal. Talking to TNS, CPI national executive member Dr Joginder Dayal said it was for the first time that a splinter group of the SAD had projected itself as a secular entity. Dr Dayal said Manpreet was raising pertinent issues and his entry into the political scene was a positive development. However the left leaders feel that Manpreet should clarify his stand on neo-liberal economic policies. There is growing realization in the left parties that they have become irrelevant in state politics. They have some influence in parts of Bathinda, Mansa, Sangrur and Ferozepur districts but cannot make a mark in electoral politics without joining hands with a dominant player. Even as the two main left parties are debating an understanding with Manpreet, the third , the MCPI, seems already in Manpreet’s camp. MCPI central committee member Prem Singh Bhangu said the party had held informal talks with the Manpreet camp and may hold further talks to evolve a third alternative to take on the SAD - BJP and the Congress. The CPI and the CPI (M) plans joint rallies in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda, Moga and Ferozepur districts. The rallies will highlight the crisis in agriculture and commercialisation of education and healthcare.
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Public money spent on treatment of CM’s wife
The first instalment of Rs 46.15 lakh was disbursed on April 3, 2010. With the disbursement of the last instalment of Rs 1.31 crore, the medical cost have crossed Rs 3 crore. In terms of cost of treatment per day, it comes to about 2000 US dollars, which is Rs 94,148. The issue of the expenses incurred on the treatment of the Chief Minister’s wife has been raised at several fora, including the political rallies at Talwandi Saboo where Congress leader Jagmeet Brar criticised the Chief Minister for using public money for his wife’s treatment. Reacting to the allegation of misuse of government funds, Punjab’s Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal says that the money disbursed has been as per the rules. It may be mentioned that Kanwarjit Singh Brar, Congress MLA from Muktsar and son of former Punjab Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar has also received Rs 2.08 crore for treatment of cancer and has requested for another sum of Rs 1.35 crore, which is under government consideration. The Beant Singh- led Congress government had also spent money from the government exchequer on the treatment of the late Karam Singh Gill.
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Wives of martyred policemen seek more benefits
Jalandhar, April 24 A spokesperson of the association, Sukhwinder Kaur Sunam, said: “Each of the families of the martyred police personnel were given a meagre Rs 1 lakh as ex gratia. The Punjab Government should enhance the aid to Rs 5 lakh on the pattern on the Haryana Government.” Sukhwinder Kaur said the Punjab DGP had on January 27 last year recommended to the Principal Secretary (Home) to enhance the ex-gratia to these families but to no avail. The chairman of the association, Dr BR Hastir, said those youths who were given jobs in the PAP/IRB units on compassionate ground should be shifted to their native police districts to enable them to look after their families. Dr Hastir said if their demands were not met, they would stage a dharna outside the official residence of the CM in Chandigarh. Subsequently, they would begin an indefinite fast to press for their demands, he added.
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Meeting to review agriculture research
Jalandhar, April 24 Dr Samra, who will present a paper at the meeting, said on the basis of the average output in the past 10 years, Punjab had produced 9.94 million tonnes of rice per annum out of which 84.2 per cent was procured by the government. This worked out to be 32 per cent of the total national procurement. For the same period, the average annual production of wheat was 14.9 million tonnes of which 63 per cent actually arrived in the market and 50 per cent procured by the government. For sustainable agriculture and national food security, financial and human investment was a must to replace the ground water- guzzling crop varieties. He said a part of the area under rice could be diverted to vegetables, oilseeds and pulses to address the issue of the constantly falling water table in the state. Also, drip irrigation could replace flood irrigation. Alternative boiler technologies needed to be developed to utilise paddy straw as fuel.
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Rationalise MSP, demands BJP Kisan Morcha
Chandigarh, April 24 Presidents of 19 states participated in the meeting besides the office- bearers of the national body. The BJP Kisan Morcha president, Om Prakash Dhankar, said the campaign would begin with district-level meetings from May onwards. “The district committees would give detailed reports on the cost of input per crop,” he said. Coming down heavily on the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, Dhankar said not a single state was giving MSP in accordance with the input costs. He demanded the procedure for fixing the MSP be made transparent.
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No scarcity of BT cottonseed, says govt
Bathinda, April 24 “We have also started holding camps to educate farmers to opt for any variety available instead of insisting on procuring seeds of a particular variety,” said Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Director, Agriculture. “We have arranged for about 30 lakh packets of BT cotton- seed of different varieties manufactured by different companies. The total consumption is expected to be 22 lakh packets and, hence, there is no scarcity of the seed in the state,” he claimed, adding the farmers were getting panicky without any reason. The sale and distribution of BT
cottonseed was being monitored at the district level by a team of agriculture officials.
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Jockeys display outstanding skills
Patiala, April 24 During the meet, horses maintained by private owners took part as jockeys, including many being the owners themselves to displayed equestrian skills. Against the national standards of average distance covered in an hour hovering around 16 kms an hour, the winner, Sahib Parminder Singh, clocked 18.38 kms an hour. “The performance of the winner was great, that too with a common horse. While in reality, during such competitions, organised at the national-level, established horse breeds especially the Army stock, have been dominating the endurance rides,” claimed an onlooker. Later Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who attended the function, said such events should be held regularly for encouraging sports. Dindsa, who is also
the president of Punjab Olympics Association (POA), said equestrian sports would get affiliation by the association and
the case would be forwarded to Indian Olympics Association. Dhindsa, also the former sports minister of India, promised that he would ask the Punjab Government to introduce equestrian sports at the school level. Recalling the importance of horses in Sikh history he said horses were promoted by the Sikhs gurus. The discipline and format, though being new to the participants, found instant acceptance. Some of the normal practises like cooling down of the horses for the veterinary check were introduced for the first time. The ride started at 5.30 in the morning after the complete veterinary check by the doctors. Kiranjit Singh and Hakam Singh occupied the second position and the third position respectively.
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Protest against ‘encroachment’
Kharar, April 24 Villagers blocked the link road of the village today, parked two trucks at the entrance and jammed the traffic for one hour. Pilgrims bound for the Daun gurdwara were
the most affected due to the jam. Speaking to mediapersons, villagers Sukhwinder Singh and Avtar Singh Gosal said the academy owners had illegally encroached upon the 7 feet off the link road of the village. “As per the records of the Revenue Department, the road is 22 feet wide of which 7 feet was encroached by constructing a wall on April 19,” said the villagers. Villagers had raised the issue with the Public Words Department (PWD) and made a formal complaint. Thereafter, PWD officials visited the spot on April 20 and on April 21 wrote letters to the Deputy Commissioner Mohali, the
SSP Mohali, the SDM Kharar and Balongi police station stating that the academy had illegally constructed a wall over a portion of the road. The PWD XEN also pointed out that the Revenue Department should properly demarcate the land and that the erring academy should be directed to compensate for the damages caused to the government property. “Despite all letters issued, the authorities refuse to act as the owner is the father of an influential IAS officer. If the wall is not knocked down by tomorrow morning, we will jam the National Highway at 9 am,”the villagers said. Meanwhile, DSP Kharar Sukhdev Singh Virk said police would take action after getting report from the Revenue Department. “The Deputy Commissioner has marked villagers’ application to the Revenue Department. In next two days the department will demarcate the land. We will book the guilty,” he said.
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Verification Fee From Migrants
Chandigarh, April 24 In his petition against the State of Punjab and other respondents filed through counsel YM Bhagirath, the petitioner had sought directions to the station house officer of city police station “not to force migrants from other states, residing in Rajpura town, to forcibly register them and issue verification cards by charging Rs 100 per card”. Taking up the petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia asserted: “According to the petitioner, a large number of migrants are working in different establishments in Rajpura town and have been living there for long.” In its detailed order, the Bench said the statements made in the writ petition would indicate that the petitioner had submitted a representation in this regard to the Chief Minister on April 5. “Copies of the representation have been furnished to the Home Secretary and Director-General of Police, Punjab.” The Bench concluded: “As the representation has been filed on April 5, naturally, the same has not been disposed of till date. Having considered the issues raised in the writ petition and as the matter pertains to the realm of a policy, we are of the view that, at this stage, it would be more appropriate to direct the Home Secretary, Government of Punjab, to consider the matter and pass appropriate orders keeping in view the object for which such registration and identity cards are being issued.” The court ruled that the Home Secretary will pass appropriate orders in the matter within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of this order and will also duly communicate the order to be passed to the petitioner. “This will dispose of the PIL.”
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Teaching Patriotism
After some editing, the NCERT has printed nothing less than 5,000 copies, with the foreword by the Director himself. This is, perhaps, the first time a book authored by a Judge on patriots has found the NCERT’s approval. A sitting Judge of the High Court at the time of putting pen to paper, Justice Aggarwal’s book “The Heroes of Cellular Jail” was initially published by the Punjabi University way back in 1995. It was again printed through a private publisher and its release in 2006 coincided with the centenary celebrations of the Cellular Jail in 2006. “The jail is a silent witness to the trial and tribulations of the freedom fighters incarcerated in the jail during the country’s crucial struggle for freedom,” says Justice Aggarwal. “The students, reading the book, will now come to know all about it”. The book brings to life grave realities of torture, fatal brutalities and noxious hardships and takes the reader from the time the jail was a nothing less than a torture factory to its memorial status.
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Panel to identify fake varsities
Jalandhar, April 24 The committee comprising the VCs of Punjab Technical University
(PTU), Jalandhar, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and scholar Darbara Singh Kahlon would submit its report in this regard. “As soon as the fake universities are identified, we will put a list on our website to warn the students and their parents,” said Sekhawan during his visit to the local DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology here. On the need to revamp the syllabi of schools under the
PSEB, Sekhawan said a special committee had been formed to study the issue. “The Chairman of the
PSEB, Dalbir Singh Dhillon, is heading the committee which will determine the changes required in the syllabi for the primary, secondary and higher secondary classes,” he said.
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Khalsa College Imbroglio
Amritsar, April 24 The conference brought together leaders from different political parties as also prominent citizens from various sections of the society on a single platform over the issue. Later, a resolution seeking free and fair elections of the college’s governing council to rid it from the “clutches of Badal and Majithia families” was passed.
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JEs to begin rallies from April 27
Patiala, April 24 Giving this information, general secretary council Davinder Singh told TNS, “The PSPCL management is adopting an indifferent attitude towards the pending demands of junior engineers (JE), which include reimbursement of cost of 30 litre petrol per month in lieu of local out door duty allowance (LODA), increase in promotion quota from existing 22.5 per cent to 30 per cent, making the induction post optional and removal of under employment among diploma holders working on below JE-level posts.”
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IRB men give lessons on cleanliness
Patiala, April 24 “More than 90 battalion members took part in the drive and many of them are youngsters. We cleaned the park with the help of an NGO and the results are overwhelming”, said IRB Commandant Mandeep Singh Sidhu. “Such gestures go a long way in educating the masses about many social evils and helps families to rectify their mistakes,” Divisional Forest Officer Karamjit Singh Jattana said.
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Rajpura/Sirhind, April 24
The Industries Department has been asked to shortlist all bicycle manufacturers and ask them to submit a theme-based design.
Ferozepur, April 24
Ropar, April 24
Chandigarh, April 24
Chandigarh, April 24
Chandigarh, April 24