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Missing boy found dead
Protest rally
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Private wheat buyers, flour millers
Farmers harvest wheat manually
Research papers on IT presented
Seminar on water conservation
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Missing boy found dead
Jalandhar, April 21 The incident flared up anger among the residents of Reru village against alleged police inaction. They blocked traffic on the Jalandhar-Pathankot National Highway. The victim’s mother, Ranjit Kaur, said her son had gone to the house of a neighbour, Madan Mohan Bedi, to watch TV, but never returned. “The next day, we received a call for a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. We informed the police,” she added. The call was traced to a PCO in Samrala Chowk in Ludhiana but the police later ruled out the kidnapping theory. The residents, however, demanded that the guilty be punished at the earliest and disciplinary action taken against police officers for not taking timely action. They raised slogans against SSP Ishwar Singh and DSP Rajinder Singh in the presence of both the officers. The boy’s father, Kashmir Singh, a taxi driver by profession, alleged that though the family had pinpointed to Madan Mohan Bedi as the main suspect, the police released him after some questioning . After the protests, the police again rounded up Bedi and his brother, Bharat Bhushan. The DSP said Bedi worked as a junk dealer and belonged to Ludhiana. Some residents alleged that the killing could be a result of personal animosity. The victim’s mother said, “We were called to the police station at 10.30 am. I though that my son has come back, but they gave us the body”. The police said the body’s condition indicated that the boy was killed at least fifteen days back. The body was sent for postmortem. The case is now also being investigated under Section 302 of the IPC. |
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Protest rally
Jalandhar, April 21 District president of the union, Mr Beant Singh Bhadna, said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had cancelled the ongoing process of admission of the teachers through the Zila Parishads and the panchayats. He added that the members now wanted that these appointments be made directly through the department. A memorandum was also submitted to the DC.
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Private wheat buyers, flour millers put under scanner
Kapurthala, April 21 The Punjab Mandi Board has also asked the Market Committee through an email to furnish details of purchases of wheat made by private traders in the district. The visits follow reports in a section of the press that private traders and millers were procuring most of the wheat in the markets in connivance with commission agents and government officials. The news report had claimed that the buyers were paying farmers just one rupee above the MSP of Rs 650. It had further claimed that the owners of roller flour mills were trading the wheat under the licence of processing it and getting exemption in market fees. But the secretary of the Market Committee, Mr Harvinder Singh Riar, said nothing tangible was found by the intelligence agencies. One of the private buyers, Mr Pawan Kumar Aggarwal, also confirmed the questioning by the agencies, but refuted all the allegations that had appeared in the media. “I am making purchases by paying all the government taxes,” he claimed. However, on conditions of anonymity, an officer of the procurement agency said that 90 per cent of the space in the godowns in government agencies was unoccupied due to negligible procurements. In the district, the expected arrival of wheat was 3.29 lakh metric tonnes (MT). In Kapurthala’s new grain market, procurement agencies, like Pungrain, Markfed, Warehousing and Punjab Agro and Punsup, have been given a target of 33,615 MT, but these agencies could procure only up to 2,600 MT out of total of 18,445 MT wheat that had arrived in the market till yesterday. As government agencies reportedly fail to reach the targeted procurement, creating a buffer stock might become increasingly hard for the Centre. It might also push up wheat and flour prices as soon as arrivals in the markets dwindle. Private buyers sent the first rake of 40 wagons, loaded with wheat bags procured from the local grain market, to SGTY, Kolkata, yesterday night. Enquiries revealed that four more rakes to Coimbatore, Rangwani, New Guwahati and Jorhat have also been requisitioned. In the commodity futures market, rates of wheat have soared to Rs 900 for the month of July, traders in the local grain market claimed. In addition, government agencies like Punsup and Punjab Agro, who have hired 90 per cent of plinths and godowns from private parties on a guarantee basis, would have to shell out rent without using the space, in case they fell short of the targets.
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Farmers harvest wheat manually to save chaff
Phagwara, April 21 }Here, the cost factor has overtaken technology. Though manual harvesting was replaced by the mechanical one a long time ago due to the time and cost factor, a reverse process is being witnessed in some pockets of the Phagwara sub-division. Farmers here are increasingly going back to the traditional method of manual harvesting to combat the shortage of wheat chaff and its soaring price. In a survey at Chak Hakim, Mehtan, Panchchat and Ranipur villages under the sub-division, it was found that manual harvesting had overtaken the mechanical one. Around 30 per cent of the farmers in the sub-division have started harvesting their produce. In many areas, manual harvesting is being undertaken by local farm workers, even in the absence of enough migrant labourers. The process is likely to reduce pollution since the stubble left after manual harvesting is not burnt to clear off the fields. In the case of mechanical harvesting, the residue has to be set afire. Farmers in the villages said that like all other commodities, the prices of chaff had increased manifold. Many said they were forced to sell their animals due to the increasing maintenance cost. The farmers added that the agricultural experts had advised them to harvest the crop manually, so that they would be able to produce straw and store it for future use. Sharing his experience, Joga Singh, a farmer in Mehtan village, said that though manual harvesting was a time-consuming exercise, the farmers preferred it due to the soaring price of wheat chaff. “All those who run dairy farms and have some head of milch cattle want to save wheat chaff and are opting for manual harvesting,” he added.
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Research papers on IT presented
Jalandhar, April 21 Chairman of the Synetic Business School, Ludhiana and advisor, Trident Group, Mr M.A. Zahir and managing director, Majestic Auto Limited, Ludhiana, Mr M.C. Munjal, was also present. Fifteen research papers were presented by scholars from different universities, institutes and colleges during the technical session on computing, networks and man-machine interface. Head of the Punjab Engineering College, Dr Sanjeev Sofat, and GM (HRD), International Tractors Ltd (Sonalika), Mr G. V. Sharma, were the guests of honour for the session. In the next session, 16 research papers covering various applications of technology and management were presented by scholars from all over India.
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Seminar on water conservation
Phagwara, April 21 Activists and environmentalists at the function spoke of an impending water crisis in the state and urged for remedial measures. A senior fellow of the Institute of Developmental Studies, Dr M.S. Rathore said, “A water conservation and management policy needs to be mooted to sensitise people about the impending threats”. Sant Balbir Singh Seenchewal, a renowned environmentalist, said, “Don’t expect much from the government. People must form pressure group against the pollution of water resources”. KVM called for a movement against the exploitation of water resources. The NGO along with other organisations would take out a “Bhai Kanahiya Jal Sangharsh Yatra” from Amritsar in August.
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