Ludhiana, September 29
On the second day of the regional-level literary and cultural competitions of the Punjab School Education Board, being held at Government Senior Secondary School, Punjab Agricultural University singing and dance competitions were organised. About 150 students from Mansa, Sangrur, Patiala and Ludhiana districts are participating in the fancy dress, lok geet and shabad gayan competitions. Students from classes I to V classes are participating in these events.

The results of the various competitions held today are: Shabad gayan — Amandeep & party 1, SD Model Senior Secondary School, Rajpura; Manvir Kaur & party 2, Sri Har Guru Public School, Jalwana; and Priya Garg & party 3, NSD Model School, Mansa.

Vaar gayan —Gurjant & party 1, Rajjagdev Model High School, Ludhiana; Dilpreet & party 2, DAV Model Senior Secondary School, Khanna; and Ramandeep & party, 3, Robin Model High School, Dhuri.

Lok geet — Hardeep Kaur & party 1, Guru Har Krishan Public School, Doraha; Sukhjeet & party, 2 Government Senior Secondary School, Patiala; and Vidushi Mishra, 3, Harkrishan Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana.

Bhangra — Ekamjit & party, 1, GHG Senior Secondary School, Gursur Sadhar; Sejalpreet & party, 2, Baba Isher Singh School, BRS Nagar, Ludhiana; and Dalbir Singh & party, 3, Government Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Patiala.

The results of various events held yesterday are: Fancy dress — Keerti, 1, DAC Model School, Khanna; Marjit Singh Sidhu, 2, Young Farmers Public High School, Bhadson; and Kamalpreet Kaur & party, 3, Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Bin Heri, Nahha.

Shabad gayan — Inderpreet Kaur & party, 1, Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, Doraha; Tannavi & party 2, CM Senior Secondary Public School, Rajpura; and Jyoti Arora, 3, R.S. Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar.

Ludhiana, September 29
Dr Faqir Chand Shukla, Professor of Food Technology, Punjab Agricultural University, retired today after attaining the age of superannuation. Joining as a lecturer in 1970, Dr Shukla has served for 35 years and rose to become Professor in 1994.

Dr Shukla has done research on yoghurt, paneer, soya milk and soya paneer, beverages, paneer pickle etc and has guided 18 students for postgraduate degrees in food technology. He was awarded Dr J.S. Pruthi Award for his paper in research and development in Food Technology. He has 100 research and scientific papers to his credit.

Dr Shukla is a scientist, a teacher, science and creative writer and an actor-all rolled into one. He has authored 30 books on Foods and Nutrition, short stories, plays and children literature and has received many awards. His work have been translated and published into Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Sindhi, Tamil, Malyalam, Urdu and Bangla.

He is a recipient of Shiromani Award in 2000 for his pioneering work for popularisation of science in Punjabi. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a gold medal. Dr Shukla has received nine National Awards and 15 awards from different states. He is also the recipient of Punjab Ratan Award.

Two of his books in Punjabi “Khuraak ate Sehat” and “Sasta Bhojan-Vadhiya Bhojan” were awarded two National Awards. Dr Shukla was also bestowed the National Award for Children’s Literature for his book “Sachchi Khushi”. A recipient of Mohan Rakesh Award for his book of Hindi plays “Jot Se Jot Jaley”. Dr Shukla was also honoured with Shri Guru Hari Krishan Award for Children literature by the Punjab Government Language Department for his book “Minh Wala Din”.

Ludhiana, September 29
A delegation of PAU scientists led by Dr Darshan Singh, which was on a visit to the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, since September 21 has returned to Ludhiana.

The delegates were in Pakistan to attend an “International Conference on Entomological Sciences and International Workshop on Cotton” held at Faisalabad. The team comprised Dr G.S. Deol, Head, Department of Entomology, Dr Amrik Singh Sohi, Dr V.K. Dilawari, Dr Gursharan Singh and Dr G.S. Sandhu. The conference was inaugurated by Minister for Literacy and Basic Education Hussain Jahania Gardezi while Parliamentary Secretary Walayat Shah Khaga was the guest of honour.

Dr Darshan Singh made a presentation highlighting the strengths of academic and research programmes with special emphasis on facilities and state-of-the- art laboratory facilities available in the PAU with particular reference on entomology. The faculty and the postgraduate students showed keen interest in the higher education programmes being executed at the PAU.

He suggested that apart from faculty participations in the annual old boys meet held both at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and at the PAU, initiative needs to be taken across the borders to encourage faculty as well as two way postgraduate student mobility programmes.

Other PAU scientists also presented their research papers and discussions between the Indian and Pakistani scientists centred around the strategies to be adopted for the management of insect pests of cotton, also made a presentation highlighting the type of academic programme along with details of the course curriculum and laboratory facilities made available to the M. Sc. and Ph.D. students of entomology at the PAU.

The PG students of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, showed keen interest in the achievements here and desired to have close interaction with the faculty and students from across the border.

The workshop on cotton was inaugurated by Mr Mushtaq Cheema, Minister of Textiles, Government of Punjab.

Mr Cheema highlighted the role of scientists, progressive farmers and industry in boosting the production of cotton which is a main stay as far as the economy of Pakistan Punjab is concerned.

During this workshop, a large number of progressive farmers also participated. Mr Riaz Ahmad, a progressive farmer of East Punjab, also made a presentation highlighting the type of technologies developed by him which included the modified farm machinery especially designed for the management of weeds in bed planted cotton fields.

The scientists and progressive farmers showed a keen interest in talk delivered by Dr A.S. Sohi, senior entomologist from the PAU, especially with respect to the type of cotton varieties being grown and strategies being adopted for the management of pests like spotted bollworm, american bollworm and tobacco caterpillar on cotton.

On the evening of September 23, students of the host university presented a cultural programme in honour of the visiting delegates in which apart from songs, skits etc, a one-act play was presented highlighting Hindu-Sikh-Muslim unity.

The students of the university presented a memento to Dr Darshan Singh, Dean, PGS, for its onward forwarding to the PAU students as a token of love and affection from their side. Dr Darshan Singh appreciated their initiative and emphasised upon the need to have cultural exchanges between the students of both universities.

The Indian scientists also visited the farms of progressive farmers in some villages.

They were shown the impact of technologies developed by Pakistani scientists, especially with regard to production of cotton and sugarcane.

At one of the field near Toba Tek Singh, apart from the District Nazim, Chaudhary Mohamad Ashfaq, a large number of cotton growers were present who were highly inquisitive to know about the IPM strategies being followed by the cotton growers especially in Indian Punjab.

The delegation returned on September 26 after making pilgrimage to historic Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Sri Dehra Sahib and the Samadhi of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore.