Ludhiana, December 22
A training course on “recent advances in vegetable production technology” began at Punjab Agricultural University here yesterday.

Head, Department of Vegetable Crops and Director of the course A.S. Sidhu, while highlighting the importance of vegetable cultivation said although there has been quantum jump in the vegetable production in recent years, however, in view of the demand, the scenario of vegetable production is far from satisfactory.

He informed that India occupied the second position next to China in vegetable production. Punjab grows vegetables in 1.58 lakh hectares with total production of 2.67 million tonnes. “There has been an enhanced demand of fresh vegetables abroad which offers great opportunities for their export”, informed Dr Sidhu. In order to boost production, hybrid varieties are being promoted but short supply of hybrid seed is one of the constraints.

Dr Sidhu informed that scientists are making concerted efforts for developing suitable varieties. PAU has made significant progress in this direction. Ten hybrids have been released in four vegetable crops namely Punjab Hybrid, MH-10 and Punjab Anmol of muskmelon; CH-1 and CH-3 of chilli; BH-1 and BH-2 of brinjal and TH-2312, TH-802 and TH-1 of tomato. Out of these, Punjab Hybrid of muskmelon and BH-1 of brinjal have been released at the national level. There has been a wide adoption of these hybrids especially in muskmelon and chilli. 

Ludhiana, December 22
PAU senior horticulturist Dr Jasbir Singh Randhawa has been awarded the prestigious “Dr J.C. Anand gold medal 2004” by the Horticultural Society of India for his contribution to enhance shelf life of fruits through scientific post-harvest handling of horticultural crops.

Dr Randhawa has evolved post-harvest technology in respect of citrus fruits, grapes, pear, peach, mango, litchi, pear and plum.

His research has enhanced the quality of horticulture crops. Consequently, losses in transit are less and returns to fruit growers more.

Ludhiana, December 22
Christmas is perhaps the only festival that is celebrated with an equal amount of joy and happiness all across the world. Christmas functions were held in several schools of the city today.

The Christmas vacation in schools will begin from December 24 and hence the schools are celebrating Christmas before the holidays.

Christmas was celebrated in St. Xavier’s Play-Way here today with a lot of gaiety and joy. The whole school was tastefully decorated. Children came to school in colourful dresses and many of them were dressed as Santa Claus and fairies. Various fun games like musical chairs, colour recognition game and one minute show were organised for the enjoyment of children. Children danced to the tunes of Christmas songs. Santa Claus danced along with the students and gave away gifts to the children.

Christmas was celebrated in Dil’s Nursery School, Model Town Extension, with great fervour and zeal. The children came dressed up as Santa Claus, Mother Mary and X’mas tree. Christmas carols were sung and the children sang Jingle bells. The Principal Ms Harbans Kaur Dil, distributed sweets and wished all a Merry Christmas. Mr Arvinder Singh Assistant Commissioner (Income- Tax) was the chief guest.

Guru Leela Samjik Inqlab Sanstha has decided to celebrate Christmas with poor children from slum areas. The association has invited city youth to offer special prayers and sing carols and enact skits based on the life of Jesus Christ.

Kiddies’ Paradise: Christmas was celebrated in Kiddies’ Paradise, Kochar Nagar with enthusiasm, teachings and messages from the Bible were displayed in every nook and corner of the school. Ms Jaya Prada, In charge of the school wished all students Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The students of Ryan International School marched out in the city spreading the message of Christmas. The students of montessori and primary sections dressed up as Santa Claus, fairies, lambs, and walked shouting slogans of peace, harmony and love.

Ms Jaishree Gupta, Principal of the school, said the children are the best mascots of peace as their hearts are full of innocence. She thanked the residents of the Residents Welfare Association, Urban Estate, Phase 11, Dugri and police personnel for their support during the march.

Khanna, December 22
For the second consecutive year there are two Bar associations here as the lawyers failed to resolve their differences. One group had elected its office bearers on December 8 while the other having majority in the bar had elected its president on Tuesday.

The election was held for the post of the president while the candidates for the post of the vice-president and secretary were elected unopposed.

The Khanna Bar Association has strength of hundred voters. Yesterday, seventy lawyers participated in the election process. The contest was between Mr Teja Singh and Mr Pushpinder Singh. Mr Pushpinder Singh won the election with a margin of four votes. Mr Pushpinder Singh scored 37 votes while Mr Teja Singh 33 votes.

A spokesman of the group, which organised the election, said their group has a big majority in the Khanna Bar Association. He said the minority group had the support of only few lawyers. He said their group had support of seventy-five lawyers out of hundred. He said seventy lawyers had caste their votes in favour of their group and five lawyers included Mr Ankur Sharma, Mr S.P. Shsourie, Mr Guljar Mohnad, Mr Gurbax Singh Janjua and Mr Jagjit Singh Aujla are also their supporters, however, they failed to cast their votes due to some reasons.

On December 8 the other group had elected its office bearers after failing to reach a compromise. This group had elected Mr Gurbir Singh Sekhon as president, Rashmi Manro as vice-president and secretary Gursewak Singh. Last year two the Bar Associations had worked simultaneously headed by Mr Nahar Singh and Mr Naveen Thamman.

Meanwhile, Mr Pushpinder Singh, newly elected president by the majority group said he was trying to bring the other group under his leadership. He hoped that there would be one Bar Association here.

Ludhiana, December 22
After the Mata Sahib Kaur Sports Club of Jarkhar, organisers of the annual sports festival for the past 18 years failed to receive any grant announced from time to time by a number of leaders belonging to different political parties, certain sports promoters of the area have taken a lead and contributed generosuly for the construction of a stadium. The club has collected a total of Rs 20 lakh from sports promoters and NRIs of the area which will be utilised for the construction of stadium with modern facilities.

According to Mr Jagroop Singh Jarkhar, an active member of the club, during the past one and half decade, a number of leaders including Punjab Ministers belonging to different parties, had visited the village to inaugurate or preside over the prize distribution functions of this annual event and announced grants from their discretionary quotas for the construction of a stadium in the village but unfortunately they did not receive a single penny.

Giving details, Mr Jagroop Singh informed that now, the club members, with the assistance of some well wishers and promoters, had succeeded in mobilising funds for the purpose. The seating capacity of the stadium will be increased by erecting stairs besides the construction of two big platforms, more than one dozen rooms, one big hall, meeting room, an office, gymnasium, and basketball courts, he added.

He further said that in this project, they received contributions from Gurudwara Manji Sahib in addition to an NRI, Mr Sarabjit Singh Kooner, Mr Rajdeep Singh Gill, ADGP of Punjab Police and president, Basketball Federation of India, Mr J P Singh, secretary, Zila Parishad, Ludhiana, Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal, secretary, Punjab Basketball Association, Mr Depinder Singh Dimpy, Mr Balbir Singh, Mr Sharnjit Singh Theerike, Sarpanch Tarlochan Singh Grewal extended help in collecting funds for building the stadium in the village.

Mr Narinder Pal Singh, chairman of the club, said basketball and hockey academies would be started in the stadium shortly for which the exercise had already commenced.

Ludhiana, December 22
The following weightlifters have been selected to represent Punjab in the 58th men’s and the 21st women’s National Weightlifting Championship to be held at Yamunanagar from December 25 to 30, according to Arjuna awardee and general secretary, Punjab Weightlifting Association.

The teams are (men) — Pardeep Heera, Manjit Kumar, Kamaljit Singh, Santokh Kumar, Balwinder Kumar, Laljit Singh, Labh Singh and Sarabjit Kanda Women — Parveen, Sukhvir Kaur, Sarabjit Kaur, Sukhdip Kaur, Kuljinder Kaur and Sonia Prabha. D K Sharma and H S Sandhu will accompany the teams as coaches.