AGRICULTURE

BKU seeks compensation for farmers
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 27
The Bharti Kisan Union (BKU) has demanded a compensation for the farmers whose wheat crop was gutted in fire incidents reported in the state during the current season.

Addressing the mediapersons today, the President of the state unit of BKU, Mr Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, said he had conducted a survey of the fields of the farmers where the crop had been destroyed due to fire. He said the damage had been too much and demanded that the government should compensate these farmers by paying at the rate of Rs 13,000 per acre to the affected farmers.

He also demanded that the wheat, that was spoiled in the mandis due to rains and hailstorm that had hit the region two days ago, should also be procured at the full price.

Mr Lakhowal and Prof Manjit Singh Kadian, general secretary of the BKU said due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government the loose hanging wires were not repaired and the farmers had to bear the brunt of situation.

They said they had been requesting the government for the past many years to remove the problems like loose wires, broken poles and faulty transformers but to no avail and the farmers had to suffer losses worth crores.

Mr Lakhowal also said while this year the farmers were feeling very happy as they were expecting a bumper crop, the fire incidents and fury of the nature had dashed all their hopes. He demanded that the farmers should be compensated and snags in the electric wires should be removed immediately.

Notices issued to Markfed
Our Correspondent

Khanna, April 27
The Market Committee, Khanna, has issued notices to Markfed to pay damages for delay in lifting of wheat at local grain market.

According to information in notices the Market Committee had demanded sum of Rs 72,000 for not lifting the wheat.

Confirming that notices had been issued the Secretary, Market Committee Mr Jeet Komal, said about 90,000 bags of wheat were still lying in Khanna Grain Market. He said the amount demanded in the notices may vary.

A local arhtiya Kamaljit Singh Kamma said the delay was intentional.

The District Manager Mr Virinder Singh, said the delay in lifting was due to heavy arrival this year as arrival is much more this year than last year.

It may be mentioned here that an Field Officer of Markfed already transferred due to the alleged involvement for not lifting the wheat. The manager of Markfed, Khanna, could not be contacted despite efforts.

EDUCATION

Making students, teachers aware of their rights
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 27
A large number of students and teachers took part in the consumer awareness workshop organised here for them exclusively today at BCM Arya School, by the National Forum For Consumer Rights (NFCR).

Dr Bharti Uppal, secretary, NFCR, Mr Raminder Singh, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Mr B.S. Sohal, treasurer, NFCR, and Dr Sanjeev Uppal spoke on the topics, consumer awareness, services lapses, fake currency and health services respectively.

Dr Bharti Uppal while addressing the participants, disseminated relevant information regarding rights of consumer and how could a consumer fight his or her case in any District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. Moreover, she added “The consumer does not require any advocate to represent his or her case before the forum and he or she does not require to pay any court fee.”

The chief guest of the workshop, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Mr Raminder Singh, on this occasion highlighted the importance of consumer awareness. He also discussed the problem of service lapses. While addressing the participants, he was of the view, “In a large number of cases of service lapses, the public is responsible, as they criticise government agencies and officers concerned, instead of bringing the fault to their notice.”

Mr Raminder Singh further said, “It is for the common man to intimate the concerned official timely. It is not easy to manage a population of about 30 lakh and hence it is necessary to take timely action.” While answering queries of the participants, he assured them that the problems brought to his notice would be sorted out at the earliest.

Mr B.S. Sohal, treasurer, NFCR, spoke on the topic of fake currency. He educated participant upon identification of fake currency notes and coins. He also discussed the other problems related to finance which consumers face in day-to-day life.

The other speaker, Dr Sanjeev Uppal educated the participant regarding their rights while getting health services. He said, “While getting treatment from any medical practitioner, they can ask for his or her registration number, about their disease and the diagnoses given.”

While talking to The Tribune, the general secretary, NFCR said, “We have chosen students and school teachers as our target audience in the very first workshop organised by us, because, students form the coming generation of consumers and teachers could disseminate this necessary message to the future generation for a long time.”

PAU website to get a facelift
Deepkamal Kaur

Ludhiana, April 27
The official website of the Punjab Agricultural University, www.pau.edu, which had been lying almost defunct for the past four years since its launch, will soon get a facelift.

The university authorities have decided to hand over the development of the site in terms of technical aspects to the Department of Computer Science in the College of Agricultural Engineering and for content development to the Department of Journalism, Languages and Culture in the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, where the students and staff would work jointly to update it regularly and make it highly interactive, by adding several new features to it.

Giving this information, Dr V.K. Sharma, Registrar, said the site was currently being assessed by a Delhi- based company for checking its linkages and accessibility from different browsers. He said several meetings had been held with Dr M.A. Zahir, Dean, College of Basic Science. Dr Jagmohan Singh, head of the Department of Computer Sciences and Dr Ravi K. Dhar from the Department of Journalism, Languages and Culture for getting inputs and ideas for developing content and getting technical support.

Discussing the reasons for lack of maintenance in the previous years, Dr Sharma said the site was initially developed from a local, private company which was responsible for one-time setting. No plan for its maintenance was made and the site slowly became ‘dead’ with hardly any information being added to it he said. Since regular flow of information online had become the need of the hour, it was now being decided to maintain it on a day-to-day basis.

It was decided that from now onwards the content of the site would be developed in the newly set up media laboratory of the department where, all students, professors, deans and other higher authorities from different colleges would send the relevant information and their feedback. For further enhancing the flow of information, students of the journalism department would be assigned duty to collect information from the colleges, administrative block and communication centre, besides maintaining cordial relations with the officials concerned.

With admission time approaching fast, it has also been decided that information regarding admission process for various graduate and postgraduate courses be put on the site. Even the admission forms are likely to be put on the website so that students from different parts of the country can cull it from the Internet, while also getting to know about the dates for entrance tests, eligibility and counselling.

For the benefit of the students from outgoing batches, placement facilities are also likely to be made available on the Internet. Resume of the students along with their field of specialisation and areas of interest would be posted on the Internet and be made accessible to several employers from concerned industries and organisations all over.

Giving further details, Dr Jagmohan Singh said that discussions were being held to add online courses for the students. He added that to facilitate relationships with the farmers, there would be a separate column for providing regular information to them. He said the main aim of his department would be setting up servers, networking and intranet for setting up linkages within the university. He, however, said that the whole process would take another 15 days to be completed.

National seminar for home scientists
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 27
The Society for Home Scientists for Agricultural and Rural Development, Punjab Agricultural University, will organise a national seminar in the College of Home Science, PAU, on May 8 and 9.

Giving this information, Ms M.K. Dhillon, general secretary of the society and head of the department of Family Resource Management, said home scientists from state agricultural universities all over India would participate in the seminar and speak on ‘Technological advances in home science for rural development’. Sub-themes for the seminar would be ‘Child care industry : technological innovations’; ‘Rural clothing and textile technologies’; ‘Empowering women for rural development’ and ‘Health through university technologies for better household environment’.

Ms Dhillon said the seminar would aim at advancement of all aspects of home science for household and village community at national level for better quality of life for rural families. She said over 200 members of the society would participate in the seminar, which would be presided over by Dr S.K. Mann, Dean, College of Home Science.

Career counselling programme organised
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 27
Recently Bulls Eye, an organisation preparing students for entrance exams, Ludhiana, organised a two day ‘Career Counselling Programme’ at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, to make students aware about career avenues in the field of technical education.

Students inquired about the future career avenues in India and abroad. While speaking to the center head, Bulls Eye, Ludhiana, Dr H.K. Buttar, Principal GNE, said, “Students should be made aware about the dynamics of the technical education and about the changing scenario at the national and international level because most of the students here are from a rural background. The moves initiated by coaching centers should be supported by the management of the technical institutions.

The center head of Bulls Eyes advised students to focus their energy and finances on professional and job-oriented course related to engineering and management streams. Bulls Eye will organise these programmes in all engineering and management colleges of the city and its outskirts.

Promotions on seniority basis demanded
Our Correspondent

Sahnewal, April 27
The Punjab Government College Teachers’ Association led by Mr Jaipal Singh of SCD Government College of Ludhiana has demanded promotions for government college lecturers to the posts of principal on the basis of seniority.

Prof Jaipal Singh, president of the Punjab unit of the GCTA, said: “Nearly 20 posts of principal are vacant and promotions of eligible lecturers should be done on a similar pattern from the date they had become eligible.” He also said, “The government has changed the criterion of promotion from seniority-cum-merit to merit-cum-seniority on the basis of the ACRs. Before September 6, 2001, a lecturer was required to have 15 points out of 20 in his or her ACRs of the past five years to be eligible for the promotion. This way, many senior lecturers have been ignored in promotions.”

Prof Jaipal Singh has urged the government to consider the demand and welcomed the decision of the Punjab Government to promote Prof K.K. Saxena of the Government Bikram College of Commerce of Patiala and Prof G.P.S. Bhatia of Government College of Ludhiana as principals.