Moga, May 26
Expressing serious concern over the appalling and unhygienic conditions of the slaughterhouses in Punjab and other states, Dr Tishya Chatterjee, Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, has summoned a report on the functioning of slaughterhouses from the chief secretary of the state by May 31, this year.

It has also directed the state to furnish suggestions for improvement of slaughterhouses as given by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), which has observed that slaughterhouses in most parts of the country are in a dismal condition with hardly any facilities available.

Chatterjee has also asked the chief secretary to initiate immediate action by undertaking a special drive to get all the slaughterhouses in the state registered by involving the local self-governments and improve sanitation and hygiene. The Ministry is also concerned over the illegal slaughterhouses operating in most of the cities and towns in the state and removal of solid waste from the slaughterhouses, which is also not regular at some places. It has been learnt that in most of the cities and towns in the state the civic bodies have not constructed slaughterhouses and meat markets to provide meat under hygienic conditions to the consumers.

Meanwhile, reacting to a news report ‘Sale of unhygienic meat goes unchecked in Moga’ published on May 23 in these columns, the District Magistrate Dr VN Zade has asked the Animal Husbandry Department and the local Municipal Council to keep a check on illegal slaughtering of animals and initiate efforts to set up a slaughterhouse in the town.

It was learnt that many slaughterhouses are thriving illegally in the town in absence of checking by the authorities concerned of the administration forcing the residents to consume ‘unhygienic’ meat.

It may be mentioned that as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, animals could not to be slaughtered except in recognised or licenced slaughterhouses houses and no animal that is pregnant or having offspring less than three months old or under the age of three months or has not been certified by a veterinary doctor, could be slaughtered.

Besides, the municipal or other local authority should specify the maximum limits of animals to be slaughtered in a day as per the population requirement of the area. 

Badal, (Muktsar), May 26
For a while, all the political rivalries were forgotten here today when a former chief minister and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh walked into the house of his successor and arch-rival Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to pay his personal condolences on the death of Surinder Kaur Badal.

For grief-stricken Badals, it must have been a bit of solace that Amarinder accompanied by his wife and union minister Preneet Kaur and other party colleagues walked in to offer condolences also to Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and other members of the family.

Sukhbir received Amarinder Singh and Preneet Kaur with folded hands. His wife and MP Harsimrat Kaur was also present.

During about 30 minutes stay of Amarinder, the gloomy and sorrowful atmosphere turned little relaxed. The senior Badal also shared some lighter moments with Amarinder about old age. During his stay, Amarinder also had a cup of tea with the family.

Amarinder mixed up with the family members, young and old alike. While he talked to Sukhbir about the cause of the serious illness, the diagnosis and the treatment, he also talked to the children there in his characteristic smiling manner. Sukhbir spoke about the diagnostic and treatment problems they faced. Despite efforts, Surinder Kaur could not win the battle against cancer.

Amarinder said he had personally come to share the grief of the Badal family on his and his party's behalf. The death of someone so dear is a great and irreparable loss that can only be faced with courage, he added.

Amarinder and Preneet Kaur recalled the unparalleled contribution of Surinder Kaur of associating the common masses in the campaign of langar at Sri Harmandir Sahib and making the 'darshan' of Sri Darbar Sahib possible for poor people living in remote areas by organising free transport for them.

Amarinder was accompanied by his senior colleagues Lal Singh, Arvind Khanna, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, OSDs Major Amardeep and Karanpal Sekhon besides other local leaders.

Even for photographers, it was one of the rare occasions to capture in the camera frame the two senior-most leaders but arch-rivals in a warm and a close hug.

Besides Congress MP from Hisar Naveen Jindal and BJP member of Rajya Sabha Avinash Rai Khanna, several other local party legislators and leaders visited the Badal family to offer condolences. Among them were Harminder Singh Jassi, Rana Sodhi, Jeetmohinder Sidhu, Ajitinder Singh Moffar, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Makhan Singh, Brahm Mohindra and Rana Gurjeet Singh.

Religious leaders Giani Pinderpal Singh Kathawachak and Sant Jagjit Singh Lopoke also called on the bereaved family.

Mourners in thousands queued outside the house to offer condolences to Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir.

The "Angitha Sambal" of Surinder Kaur would be held on Friday at 9 am at the cremation ground and the ashes will be immersed at Kiratpur Sahib.

Ferozepur, May 26
In view of the reports regarding the alleged intimidation of the Dalit voters by some people owing alliance to the ruling SAD in the state, the National Commission for Schedule Castes has recommended cancellation of the cantonment board by-election of ward no 7 scheduled to be held on May 29, regarding which, all the preparations had already been done.

In its letter written to the local military authorities, vice-chairman of the Commission, Dr Raj Kumar Verka said he had received a written complaint from Dharminder Kumar alias Babbu. It has been alleged in the complaint that some of the interested party were using men, money and muscle power to coerce the Dalit voters, regarding which, the Commission had passed instructions to the Station Commander Brigadier S Sengupta and SSP Dr Kaustubh Sharma to look into the matter and ensure free and fair by-election.

Verka further stated that during his recent Ferozepur visit, several people met him in the Circuit House regarding demolition of house belonging to a Dalit in the cantonment area. Thereafter, I had personally visited the ward in the cantonment where the election is scheduled to be held and interacted with a cross-section of Dalit electorate, who reported that they were allegedly being influenced and money power was being used intensively. Hence, the elections may be cancelled and proceedings may be initiated afresh after looking into the alleged complaints by some electorate comprising Dalits.

Brigadier S Sengupta said a letter has been received. However, the Board was looking into the matter and a final decision regarding it would be taken tomorrow. The Cantonment Board officials pleading anonymity said there was no reason for the cancellation of the by-election. However, the decision regarding it would be taken after consulting the higher authorities.

The main contest in the by-election is between Surinder Singh, son of vice-president, Cantonment Board, Joginder Singh, also an Akali leader and Dharminder Kumar, being supported by some of the Congress leaders in the area.

Bathinda, May 26
Focusing upon the promotion of sports activities in the Bathinda region, which was once called backwaters of Punjab, the state government is pumping in crores to make it a sports hub equipped with ultra-modern infrastructure.

For the purpose, Rs 42-crore state sports school is coming up at Ghudda (Bathinda), two main stadiums in the city are being given a total facelift at the cost of nearly Rs 20 crore.

Besides being well-equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities, both the stadiums will have floodlights while one of them will have an Astroturf for hockey.

As the first batch of the state sports school, without waiting for the actual building to come up, has been started from its transit campus at the Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda, the pace of construction work of the stadiums has also been enhanced.

Demolishing the existing structures of the main Sports Stadium and the Government Rajindra College stadium, foundations are being raised at a fast pace.

It is learnt that the absolute face-lifting of the main sports stadium is a project worth Rs 7.5 crore while revamping of the Rajindra College stadium will cost nearly Rs 12 crore.

To ensure the speedy and better execution, the projects are assigned to two different agencies-the Bathinda Development Authority (the main Sports Stadium) and the Punjab Mandi Board (the Rajindra College stadium).

The main sports stadium will have two separate pavilions for VIPs and VVIPs.

The foundation stone of the stadium was laid on February 17 this year with a target to complete the construction by October 26. However, the agency executing the project has now been verbally directed to complete it by August 15.

The state-of-the-art stadium at the Government Rajindra College will not only be one of its kind in the region but is also being seen as a nursery for budding hockey players.

Sriganganagar, May 26
While the Punjab government was advising the farmers to delay paddy transplantation to save water, 7600 cusecs of canal water has now been allowed to flow to the neighbouring West Punjab province of Pakistan from the Harike barrage, Subhash Sehgal, spokesman, Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, said today.

Earlier, 4000 cusecs of water was diverted to Pakistan following breaches in the canals on Sunday. Quoting officials he said only 1,000 cusecs was allowed to flow in the Eastern canal that feeds Jalalabad constituency represented by Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and Fazilka represented by Transport Minister Surjit Jyani. The canal was designed to carry 3500 cusecs, he said.

Instead of releasing water to the neighbouring country, it should have been utilised to recharge ground water resources by better management but the Irrigation Department in Punjab did not care for it, Sehgal rued. He said 12000 cusecs against the capacity of 18000 cusecs has been released in the Indira Gandhi Canal project that feeds the twin districts of Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar.

Amritsar, May 26
The SGPC on Thursday announced that it would gherao Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport, Amritsar, on June 8 to lodge its protest against the CISF “ban” on wearing “kirpan” by baptised Sikh employees while performing their duties at the apron area of the airport.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar, in a statement, said they had taken up the matter with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram while a SGPC delegation had met the CISF officials at the airport, but nothing had been done to revoke the “ban” orders even after a week. He said “kirpan” was an inseparable part of the dress code of a baptised Sikh.

Bathinda, May 26
Punjab agriculture department authorities have started making arrangements to procure about two lakh packets of authorised Bt cotton seeds for squall-affected famers of this region.

The authorities have also asked the Markfed to procure Bt cotton seeds from authorised agencies so that it could be made available to farmers of this region as and when the latter demanded.

The authorities have arranged for about 30 lakh packets of different varieties of Bt cotton seeds expecting that about six lakh hectares of area would come under cotton crop this season as cotton farmers had fetched remunerative prices for their produce during the last season. However, due to the recent squall accompanied by heavy rain and hail, cotton crop on about 1.15 lakh acres falling in Ferozepur, Muktsar, Bathinda and Mansa districts got damaged completely. Besides, cotton crop on about 85,000 acres of land suffered varying degrees of damages.

Jasbir Singh Bains, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Punjab, said though Bt cotton seeds were easily available in markets, extra packets were being arranged to ensure that affected farmers get the same at their doorsteps. He added that re-sowing of cotton crop in the affected areas was expected to start shortly, as canal water and power supply was adequate in the cotton belt of Punjab, particularly in the area that had been hit by squall.

Tarsem Singh, Joint Director, Agriculture, Punjab, said the actual loss caused to cotton crop due to the squall would be worked out in the meeting of chief agriculture officers to be held at Chandigarh tomorrow.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that a section of affected cotton growers were likely to go for paddy cultivation this season and hence, the area under cotton might not increase significantly as compared to the last year.

Meanwhile, revenue officials have been carrying out assessment of loss caused to cotton crops, fodder crop and orchards in the squall-hit region after the Punjab Government ordered special girdawari few days ago in this connection.

Umendra Dutt, executive director of the Mission, said over 300 farmers and consumers were expected to participate in the conference.

He alleged that with the support of the government, multinational seed corporations were capturing seeds fastly. It was resulting in a great threat to the freedom of farmers and food security of the country.

Dutt alleged that the government was destroying the National Seeds Corporation in a planned manner. — TNS

Bathinda, May 26
Avinash Rai Khanna, MP and former president of the BJP, Punjab, today claimed that there was no crisis in the state unit of the party after the reshuffle was carried out in the Punjab cabinet.

Khanna said whatever had been happening in the Punjab unit for the past few weeks was a normal thing, which would often take place in those parties that believed in internal democracy.

Khanna was here to honour Sumegha Garg, who scored 12th rank in the all-India merit of the IIT-JEE, 2011 and topped among girls.

Talking to TNS, he said almost all the issues, which had erupted after some ministers were dropped and new MLAs were inducted as ministers in the state cabinet, had been settled. “Anything that remains will be sorted out when Shanta Kumar, former CM of Himachal Pradesh and the in-charge of Punjab BJP affairs, will meet party's functionaries on May 29 and May 30,” he said, adding that the BJP was strong enough to face any challenge.

Later, Khanna honoured Devinder pal Garg, Urmila Devi Garg and Ankit Garg, father, mother and brother of Sumegha Garg, respectively, with a memento and shawl at their residence in the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant colony. Sumegha was away to Delhi.

Khanna said he would also go to Sangrur to honour one of the candidates, who had also made it to the IIT-JEE, 2011.

Earlier, accompanied by leaders of the district unit of BJP, Khanna visited Badal village to express condolence to CM Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal over the demise of Surinder kaur Badal.

Bathinda, May 26
The local Government Ayurvedic Hospital has been facing shortage of medicines for different types of diseases as the supply to the hospital by the state government is reportedly inadequate.

Sources said due to the shortage, the patients had to buy many of the prescribed medicines from the market. At present, the hospital needed a special quota of medicines as the supply of medicine it was getting was just equal to that of a rural dispensary. However, in the light of number of patients visiting the hospital, it is reportedly required that the supply of medicines was quadrupled so that patients could be provided all types of medicines, they added.

Meanwhile, the hospital, situated at the district headquarters here, is facing staff shortage also. Two posts of ward attendant are lying vacant. Though there are two Ayurvedic medical officers (AMOs), one of them has to perform duty at an Ayurvedic dispensary situated on the premises of the local Civil Hospital, for three days in a week.

It is learnt that the hospital, which had two staff nurses at present, also required at least two more staff nurses to provide round-the-clock service. Though the Indian system of medicines (Ayurvedic), as compared to allopathy, is not very popular, on an average, 40 patients visit the hospital daily for treatment arthritis, gout, asthma, piles, skin diseases etc.

A new block on the premises of the hospital is almost near completion. It will house two out-patient-doors (OPDs), separate wards for male and female patients, a nurse station etc. The block will be known as Panchkarma (purification of body by five methods)/Ksharsutra (Anorectal surgery) centre.

SDO of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation Dinesh Kumar said the new block was likely to complete by June 30.

The foundation stone of the Rs 37-lakh new block was laid by the then Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla on December 7.