AGRICULTURE

Conflicting reports on wheat production
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 2
Conflicting assessments are being made about the wheat production in Punjab this year. Officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department say that the state may not hit the target of procuring 1.20 crore tonne of wheat this year, because of a fall in the yield, whereas officials of the State Agriculture Department feel that the overall wheat production will be little over than what it was last year and there would be no fall in the yield. Enquiries reveal that the mandis of Punjab have received as much as 85 lakh tonne of wheat so far and daily wheat arrivals have started falling. Procurement has been swift this year so far. It is almost five times more when compared with the arrivals last year.

The daily arrivals of wheat in the mandis were reported between 5 lakh to 6 lakh tonne last week which have come down to three lakh tonne. The state government had fixed a target of 1.20 crore tonne for procurement this year. Officials of the Food Supplies Department feel that with the present pace of wheat arrivals, the target may not be achieved. They assess the procurement to be around one crore tonne this year because of an overall fall in the yield of wheat.

Last year, official agencies had procured more than one crore tonne of wheat despite the loss in lustre of the same. Officials of the Food Supply Department say that farmers have reported a fall in the yield of wheat this year because of high temperatures during the month of March, which resulted in early maturity of the crop and also a consequent decline in the yield.

However, officials of the State Agriculture Department do not agree with this assessment and maintain that the overall production of wheat will be little more than what it was last year. They maintain that the area under wheat has increased by about 20,000 hectare this year, with the result that production will increase, notwithstanding the reports of fall in wheat yield in some districts.

According to estimates of the State Agriculture Department, the overall wheat production is likely to touch a figure of 155 lakh tonne this year.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, FCI, Mr Bhurelal, had a tour of the mandis of Punjab yesterday and expressed his satisfaction with the arrangements for cleaning, weighing and storage of the procured stock.

Mr Bhurelal, who visited mandis in the districts of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Ludhiana also expressed his satisfaction with the quality of wheat this year.

He added that the emphasis of the FCI was to export maximum quantity of wheat this year and asked on the farmers to raise quality produce.

K.S. Roy
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 2
Prof K.S. Roy, Head of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histology, has been appointed fellow of the National Academy of Veterinary Sciences, India, in recognition of significant contributions to the advancement of veterinary sciences.

Recipient of the PAU meritorious teachers’ award, the Young Scientist award, the Team Research Award of the ICAR and the Dr M.S. Randhawa Best Book award, Dr Roy has worked on histochemical and histo-embryological distribution of biochemical moiety in animal tissue. He has published 170 research articles in national and international journals of repute and presented eight papers on various scientific conferences.

Diploma students meet DC
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 2
Students of diploma in cutting and tailoring from the Industrial Training Institute for Women, Rani Jhansi Road, met the Deputy Commissioner today and demanded rollback of the plan to close a nine-month teacher training course for them at the institute.

Presenting a memorandum, the students and their parents said that even though the institute was equipped with the necessary infrastructure as well as staff, the Technical Education Department had directed it to withdraw the course. The students said that with the closing of the course in the city, the students would be forced to waste a lot of time and money on commuting or availing hostel facilities at Jalandhar, Phagwara or other places.

The students later sent a copy of the memorandum to the Chief Minister, demanding immediate solution to their problem. As many as 128 students of the course would be affected with the decision.

COURTS

Forum penalises UTI for issuing cheques wrongly
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 2
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Unit Trust of India (UTI) to pay interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum on Rs 57,000 for the period from June 2 to August 23, 2001, to Mr Gurbax Singh Kalra, a resident of Kitchlu Nagar, Civil Lines. The forum has also directed the UTI to pay Rs 500 as cost of litigation to the consumer.

According to the complaint, the complainant had purchased 4,000 units under the US-64 scheme of the UTI which was an open scheme by applying on separate forms in the year 2000 in order to avail the benefit of dividends. The consumer stated before the forum that since he was in dire need of money, he offered the said units for repurchase.

The consumer disclosed that the said units were duly verified by the manager where he was maintaining his saving bank account as the verification was mandatory. He further disclosed that as per rules, the UTI was required to send the cheque of each certificate in his favour. The cheques were to be furnished in Saving Bank (SB) account number 21 with State Bank of Patiala, SB account number 721 with Punjab and Sind Bank, Kitchlu Nagar, SB account number 1655 with State Bank of India, ADE Tagore Nagar and SB account number 5402 with State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Dandi Swami Chowk, he added. But the respondent ignored his account numbers and instead of issuing the four independent cheques of Rs 14,250 each in favour his SB accounts in the four authorised banks, it issued four cheques favouring only State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Dandi Swami Chowk on May 28, 2001.

The consumer said that the cheques were sent through registered post and were delivered to him on June 1, 2001. He further said that when he approached the respondents for rectifying the mistake and on the advice of the concerned officials, gave back the cheques personally on June 1, 2001, so that fresh cheques could be issued in favour of his SB accounts in the four authorised banks. The consumer was assured that he would receive the reply within a day, but the respondent failed to issue four cheques for repurchase. It was alleged by the consumer that there was clear deficiency in services on the part of the UTI. He demanded that the respondent should be directed to issue the four cheques and interest should be paid at the rate of 18 per cent per annum from May 22, 2001 on the repurchase value. Besides, the consumer had also demanded Rs 2,500 as compensation on account of deficiency in services and Rs 2,100 as cost of litigation.

The UTI pleaded that since the units were in the name of complainant only as such three repurchase cheques of Rs 15,000 each and one for Rs 12,000 were issued on May 28, 2001. The respondent stated that the consumer had requested that all the cheques be issued favouring different banks and the reasons for furnishing different bank particulars were best known to him. However for the sake of convenience, the cheques were prepared in the name of complainant with the bank particulars and sent within the prescribed period, it added.

The respondent clarified that the cheques with different bank particulars were encashed by the complainant on August 28, 2001 and as such there was no deficiency in services. The respondent prayed for dismissal of complaint.

The forum observed that the cheques were wrongly issued by UTI in favour of only one authorised bank and it was the duty of the respondent to issue the cheques as prayed by the consumer. The forum further observed that due to wrong issue of the cheques the complainant had to again approach the respondent and the payment delayed from June 2 to August 23, 2001.

The forum held that there was deficiency in services on the part of UTI and it was desirable that the interest should be allowed to the consumer for the delayed period.