B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Fiscal crisis stares at textile industry
Muktsar, October 28
Incurring heavy losses, the textile industry in Punjab is grappling with financial crunch these days. Banks have put the industry into negative list thereby lowering the financial liquidity in the textile market.

Stalemate over purchase of paddy 1121 variety ends
Fazilka, October 28
A fortnight-old stalemate on the purchase of Basmati 1121 variety of paddy finally ended as the district administration succeeded in getting the purchase started in the Fazilka grain market this evening.

Husband, father-in-law booked for murder bid on woman
Moga, October 28
A 23-year-old woman was attacked with a firearm by her husband, father-in-law and their associates following a dispute over property. However, she escaped unhurt. A case of attempt to murder has been registered against her husband and father-in-law under the IPC and the Arms Act at Dharamkot police station.

Dengue
DHS visits Bathinda Civil Hospital thrice in 9 days
Bathinda, October 28
Concerned over the spread of dengue fever cases, especially in the Bathinda city, Director, Health Services (DHS), Punjab, Dr JP Singh today visited the Bathinda health authorities/local Civil Hospital for the third time in just nine days

Diwali mela at F’pur Cantt
Ferozepur, October 28
An exhilarating cultural evening marked the “Diwali Mela”, which was organised here under the aegis of the Golden Arrow Division at Jyoti Stadium in the cantonment. 

  Fiscal crisis stares at textile industry
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, October 28
Incurring heavy losses, the textile industry in Punjab is grappling with financial crunch these days. Banks have put the industry into negative list thereby lowering the financial liquidity in the textile market.

With economic recession hitting the USA and Europe, leading to a sharp decline in the demand for garments, and faulty export policies of the Union government, the account receivables of ginners in Punjab are rising as they are not getting payments against yarn sales on time. Thus, the ginners in Punjab are now asking for cash payment, said Bhagwan Bansal, president of the Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginners Association.

“Banks declared the textile industry in the negative list after several textile and spinning mills in South India failed to make regular repayment of loans in the past eight months,” said Rajesh Singla, vice-president of the SEL, one of the leading yarn export companies based at Ludhiana.

Bankers declined to comment on putting the textile industry in the negative list.

However, off the record, senior bank authorities say that they have received verbal instructions from the high-ups to make restricted advances to the textile industry. The reason was that the recovery from the industry is lop-sided this time, said a banker in Bathinda.

After there was a steep rise in the prices of cotton, touching around Rs 7,000 per quintal, in October last year, the Union government had capped the exports of cotton and yarn in order to protect the domestic textile industry in the face of rising raw material prices.

So anticipating more hike in cotton prices, ginners kept raising their stock. But with a cap on the cotton and yarn export and a drastic cut in the demand for garments in the USA and Europe due to recession, the spinners were not finding customer for their yarn. This resulted in the garment industry incurring heavy losses with huge stock lying unsold.

Last year, the yarn rate was about Rs 280 per kg (30 combed), which has now fallen to Rs 175 per kg. Even as the rate of cotton stood at Rs 4,000 per quintal, factories manufacturing yarn are suffering a loss of Rs 3 to Rs 5 per kg. But as most of the yarn factories had high number of regular labour and huge investment and bank loans, they were forced to run their factories, even if it incurred losses, said Rajesh Singla.

Amid abundant availability and a crash in prices, though the government removed the restrictions on the export of cotton and yarn on July 31, there is no boost to export from Punjab, which charges the highest inter-state purchase tax in the country. While all other states are charging 2 per cent tax, Punjab levies 4.4 per cent, thus discouraging the export, said Bhagwan Bansal.

 Stalemate over purchase of paddy 1121 variety ends
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, October 28
A fortnight-old stalemate on the purchase of Basmati 1121 variety of paddy finally ended as the district administration succeeded in getting the purchase started in the Fazilka grain market this evening.

After several rounds of talks with commission agents, rice mill owners and the representatives of farmers, Fazilka DC Dr Basant Garg, Additional DC Charandev Singh Mann and Market Committee chairman Ashok Jairath worked out a compromise formula.

Arhtiya Association chief Daya Krishan Sachdeva and rice mill owner Ranjam Kamra said as per the new formula, the purchaser (rice mill owner) shall make the payment within 12 days of the purchase of paddy to the commission agents without any interest. In case the purchaser fails to make the payment within the stipulated period, he would have to pay interest at the rate of 18 per cent per annum and would have to clear the payment in five months. No compound interest would be charged from the purchaser.

  Husband, father-in-law booked for murder bid on woman

Moga, October 28
A 23-year-old woman was attacked with a firearm by her husband, father-in-law and their associates following a dispute over property. However, she escaped unhurt. A case of attempt to murder has been registered against her husband and father-in-law under the IPC and the Arms Act at Dharamkot police station.

ASI Palwinder Singh, who is investigating the case, said Devinder Kaur, a resident of Mehruwala village, in her statement to the police had alleged that her husband Preetwant Singh and father-in-law Mohan Singh fired shots at her from a .12 bore gun last evening. She further stated that she had a miraculous escape.

Preliminary investigations revealed that she was married about three and a half years back. She reportedly took away the revenue documents of nine acres belonging to her father-in-law and sent the same to her parents’ house a few months back. Due to this, her husband and father-in-law often quarrelled with her.

On Thursday, following a dispute when she left her husband’s house along with her cousin, the accused persons followed her and fired shots at her outside their farmhouse.

The ASI said her father-in-law Mohan Singh had been arrested and the gun recovered by the police. However, her husband was eluding arrest, he said. — TNS

 Dengue
DHS visits Bathinda Civil Hospital thrice in 9 days
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 28
Concerned over the spread of dengue fever cases, especially in the Bathinda city, Director, Health Services (DHS), Punjab, Dr JP Singh today visited the Bathinda health authorities/local Civil Hospital for the third time in just nine days.

Earlier, he visited the hospital on October 20 and secondly on October 24. It appears that the state government is not satisfied with the functioning of the health authorities due to which the director has been paying frequent visits to the city. During his visit today, the director reportedly asked the district health authorities to give him the detailed report about the dengue cases in the city as well as in the district.

It may be mentioned here that Bathinda is considered to be a political turf of the Badal family as Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, is the Bathinda MP. Therefore, the director perhaps does not want to take any chance that may invite the wrath of the Badal family against the health authorities in view of the ensuing Punjab assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the Bathinda district today touched the figure of 509 dengue positive cases (including 439 from Bathinda city), this season. The first case had come to the notice from the Bathinda city in the mid-July while hundreds of cases have been reported from the city during the last three weeks in Bathinda. Even many residents could not celebrate Diwali this year as their kin have been suffering from the dengue fever even now.

The Blood Bank of local Civil Hospital today conducted Mac Elisa test (a confirmatory test for dengue) on the blood samples of 52 suspected dengue patients. Of them, 21 tested positive for dengue. Out of the 21 positive cases, one was from Sirsa in Haryana while rest of the 20 cases were reported from the Bathinda city.

According to the information, the total number of dengue positive cases from the Bathinda district was 489 till Thursday including 419 from the Bathinda city. Besides the 419 cases, the remaining cases were reported from Goniana block (12), Sangat (8), Talwandi Sabo (41), Ballianwali (2), Bhagta (4) and Nathana (3).

Of these 489 cases, reports about 366 dengue positive cases have been received this season by the district health authorities from the Blood Bank of the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, while the authorities received reports about the remaining cases from the Civil Hospital, Ludhiana (96), DMC Hospital, Ludhiana (23), Apollo Hospital, Ludhiana (2) and Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala (2).

  Diwali mela at F’pur Cantt

Ferozepur, October 28
An exhilarating cultural evening marked the “Diwali Mela”, which was organised here under the aegis of the Golden Arrow Division at Jyoti Stadium in the cantonment. 

The event was inaugurated by Major General Rakesh Sharma, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the division. The festive event was attended by senior officers, “Veer Naris”, serving soldiers besides various dignitaries of the town. — OC