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| Friday, January 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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‘Give
farmers freedom to choose seeds’
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| Octroi collection rises in Punjab CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — Octroi collection has doubled in Punjab during the last two years and is likely to be Rs 700 crore during the current financial year, said Mr N.K. Arora, Principal Secretary Local Government, Punjab, during an interaction organised by CII here today. Satyam’s R-Day offer CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — To celebrate the first Republic Day of the new millennium, SatyamOnline has decided to reward its existing customers by giving them up to 51 hours free on any renewal pack they buy from January 20 to 26.
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‘Give farmers freedom to choose seeds’ NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI) — Farmer leaders from Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra have urged Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee to raise the import duty on raw cotton from existing 3.5 per cent to 25 per cent to sustain domestic cotton cultivation. A delegation of the Kisan Co-ordination Committee (KCC) representing farmers’ organisations from three States, called on Mr Vajpayee last evening and informed him that cotton farmers were not getting remunerative price for their produce due to import of raw cotton that had created a price disparity in the market. Unlike a majority of Indian farmers the delegation let by Shard Joshi, a Maharashtra Kisan leader, demanded removal of restrictions on the imports of genetically improved seeds, particularly those of cotton variety, not being grown in the country. “The world over genetics revolution is raising productivity levels by leaps and bounds which has led to low international price of all crops as compared to Indian farm prices,” Shard Joshi said, adding that Indian farmers too be given freedom to choose the “right seeds”. But, he said, the Government did not even allow the trials of new high yielding seeds. Most Indian farmer leaders are pressing the Government not to allow entry of multinational companies in the country as being equipped with advanced genetic technology, they could destroy traditional domestic seed production practices, encouraging the farmers’ total dependence of seeds produced by them. Besides, they apprehend that under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime, multinationals have already patented several Indian crop varieties, posing a threat of the country’s rich biodiversity. On the other hand, KCC leaders told the Prime Minister that Indian farmers” are willing to take a challenge thrown by the international community” and demanded that imports of seeds be allowed to achieve the same productivity level as that of other advanced countries. The delegation included
former MP from Punjab Bhupinder Singh Mann, SP Shankara
Reddy and Madan Diwan. |
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HP, Punjab to gain from reduced air
fuel prices NEW DELHI, Jan 20 — The slashing of aviation turbine fuel in unviable routes can a boost tourism in hill areas like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir as aviation companies will now find it profitable to operate in these sectors. Though the decision has been apparently taken to benefit the North-Eastern States, non-trunk routes in other parts of the country would also benefit from it. “This is the most important thing that could have happened to the aviation sector in India”,the Chief General Manager of Sahara Airlines Limited (SAL) told The Tribune. SAL will induct 12 turbo-prop aircraft in a phased manner for its regional operations. Starting from April, the network would operate 85 flights to 30 destinations. These include 12 destinations in North India — Amritsar and Ludhiana among them. The other major destinations in the region include Udaipur, Varanasi, Lucknow and Jaipur. UP Air also today announced that it would be restarting operations with its two 50-seater planes. “We are most thankful to the government for taking the initiative on this long pending issue, which is a major step in boosting tourism and will help in improving connectivity across regions through turbo-props”, the Chairman and Managing Director of UP Air, Mr Subhash Gulati, said. UP Air had suspended operations in January, 1999. Jet Airways is already equipped with smaller aircraft, and discussions are also on in Indian Airlines to acquire such aircraft for certain dedicated routes like the north-eastern region which has very little profitability. Aviation experts said that operating a low capacity turbo-prop aircraft was economically more viable in shorter routes where the jets cannot reach the optimum altitude due to shorter distances. International experience has shown that the airlines generally follow a hub and spokes policy where metro stations operate as hubs which in turn are connected to the smaller cities (the spokes) through smaller aircraft. The Delhi-Shimla route, for instance, could become economically viable for both passengers and the flight operator on turbo-prop aircraft. The Union Cabinet yesterday decided to provide ATF for smaller turbo-prop aircraft flying on unviable routes like the North-East, Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir, at international prices thereby reducing its price by half and charge sales tax on it at 4 per cent. The move is being seen as another step towards phasing out administered price mechanism (APM). ATF was priced steeply for domestic aviation companies to subsidise LPG and kerosene consumers. It has also been decided
the ATF provided for turbo prop aircraft will be declared
goods under the Sales Tax Act 1956 and will not attract
more than 4 per cent tax. |
Power dept proposal gets Cabinet
nod CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — The Haryana Cabinet, which met here today, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, approved the proposal of the Power department to stand guarantee of the government in favour of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, New Delhi, which has sanctioned a loan of Rs 79.65 lakh for Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam. The loan will be used to construct roads, sewerage, drains, street lights and supply of water for the residential houses at Panchkula. The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the cooperation department to stand guarantee of the state government in favour of Nabard on behalf of Haryana State Cooperative (Harco) Bank for obtaining a loan amounting to Rs 200 crore to implement various schemes under the One Family One Job scheme for a period of three years i.e. from July 1, 1999, to June 20, 2002. Harco Bank has been implementing various farm and non-farm sector schemes of Nabard to enable the people to set up tiny, cottage, rural small-scale industrial units and agro-based industries alongwith promotion of agricultural and allied activities. These aim at providing self-employment opportunities to the educated unemployed under the One Family One Job scheme. The Cabinet approved the grant utilisation certificate and audit report of CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, for the year 1997-98. It also gave its ex-post facto approval to reemploy Mr Ram Sarup Sharma, Joint Chief Electoral Officer for a period of six months from November 1 to April 30, 2000. The Cabinet also approved the annual administrative reports of the Prosecution department for the year 1998-99, the Food and Supplies department for the year 1997-98, the Cultural Affairs department for the year 1996-97 and the Town and Country Planning department for the year 1998-99.
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Octroi collection rises in
Punjab CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — Octroi collection has doubled in Punjab during the last two years and is likely to be Rs 700 crore during the current financial year, said Mr N.K. Arora, Principal Secretary Local Government, Punjab, during an interaction organised by CII here today. The present collection is nowhere near the figure of Rs 1500 crore projected by the first Punjab Finance Commission. For providing just the piped water and sewerage in towns/cities of Punjab, Rs 3,000 crore is required, he said. Earlier, Mr K.L.Khurana, Chairman, Punjab State Council, raised the industry’s concern over the manifold increase in house tax and octroi rates which is making the Punjab Industry uncompetitive both locally as well as internationally. The interaction was
attended by a large number of industry representatives
from Punjab. |
Satyam’s R-Day offer CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — To celebrate the first Republic Day of the new millennium, SatyamOnline has decided to reward its existing customers by giving them up to 51 hours free on any renewal pack they buy from January 20 to 26. This offer will be across all renewal product ranges. Based on the result of India’s match, they can get additional 15 hours free. The customer will receive the 26 hours immediately on registering his account between these dates. The remaining hours will happen as per the rules governing the cricket scheme offer. SatyamOnline has
extended its scheme for cricket lovers to January 24. Now
for all registration of SatyamOnline fresh Internet
connections done till January 24 a customer can get 10
hours free. |
Pepsi contest for film CHANDIGARH, Jan 20 — Pepsi has unveiled a nation-wide contest for “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” at Fountain Pepsi (FP) outlets enabling 10 lucky winners to meet Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla. Pepsi has launched a TV campaign for the film with the jingle sung by Udit Narayan, according to a press release here. Contest forms are available at FP outlets in Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar.
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