AGRICULTURE

FCI all set to procure paddy
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 12
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of paddy in the state.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Mr Sandeep Gosain, Area Manager, FCI, said everything was in place and once the government issues orders for the procurement of paddy, they too would post staff in mandis earmarked for them across the state.

He said the corporation had been tasked with the procurement of 2.85 lakh tonnes of paddy in this season. The last year target was 2.48 lakh tonnes.

The staff to be posted in mandis had been instructed to make all arrangements for the farmers coming to sell their produce and it would be ensured that the farmers get their dues within 24 hours. The farmers would not have to camp in the mandis to sell their produce.

He said the procurement was likely to begin from October 1 but if the government wanted to prepone it, they were ready to comply with the orders. All infrastructure to purchase and store the paddy was in place even now, he said.

Mr Gosain also added that they had distributed pamphlets and put up posters at various places across the state asking the farmers to comply with certain guidelines before bringing their produce to the mandis.

Mr Padam Singh, AGM, Quality Control, said the paddy having a moisture content of more than 17 per cent would not be bought. He also asked the farmers to bring fully ripe paddy only in the mandis.

Other officials present on the occasion included Ms Sulakshna Gaba and Ms S.K. Dhaliwal.

From Schools and Colleges
Grandparents Day celebrated with zeal and zest
Our Correspondent

Tiny-tots of Hollyhock Nursery School answering questions about their grandparents during Grandparent Day in school in Ludhiana on Monday. — Photo Inderjit Verma

Principal Vandana Shahi said: “Today the need of the hour is a comprehensive school health policy integrated within school the school system. Constituting the health club is our first step in this direction. We will be organising more such activities to steer our students’ lives towards a healthier and better future”.

Talent hunt

A talent hunt programme was organised at Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College for Women here yesterday. The program started with shabad gayan. Many students participated in ghazals, songs, lok geet, poetry, choreography and gidda. A skit related to the prevailing superstition was present which highlighted the significance of education in one’s life.

College Principal, Paramjit Kaur Tiwana, while addressing the audience in general, asked the students to shun superstitions and acquire the path of knowledge. She further praised their efforts and encouraged them to participate in extra curricular activities.

Grandparents Day at Hollyhock

Grandparents Day was celebrated in Hollyhock School here yesterday with great fervour and enthusiasm. All the grandparents came in great numbers and were very excited. They were accompanied by their grandchildren who were very happy to be with their dada, dadis and nana-nanis in their school. It was a party filled with fun, games and lot of excitement. Ms Amrita Garewal, Principal of the school, welcomed all the esteemed guests on behalf of everyone.

Investiture ceremony

Darshan Academy here organised the Investiture ceremony and van mahotsava here yesterday. Its aim was to build up the spirit of discipline and inculcate the quality of leadership among the students and also to create awareness about nature.

On this occasion, the chief guests, Col S.K. Varni, Col S.S. Saini and Mr Jaswant Singh honoured the members of the Students Council and planted saplings in the school premises. Addressing the students, Col Varni appreciated the unique environment of the school. He admired the spiritual education being imparted to the students. He appealed to all students to be safe, be kind to all, be dedicated to truth and be respectful. His speech was followed by a vote of thank from Mr Jaswant Singh. Dr Tarunveer Saini, Principal, also highlighted the achievements of the students.

Kidzee Rainbow

Kidzee Rainbow honoured grandparents of Kidzeans on the occasion of Grandparents Day here today. Parents often accompany their children to school but it was grandparents who turned up in the school. The school was decorated accordingly and the atmosphere was soothing. Dressed up in the same colour tone, grandparents and grandchildren were given a warm welcome and had a memorable day.

Kidzee staff had organised a set of questionnaire merged with fun, music and laughter in which the views of elders on the present state of society, unforgettable moments of life, fast food vs home cooked food, coca-cola mania, advice to youngsters for leading a successful life etc were discussed. Prizes for this senior citizens’ category were also divided into three categories: Best dressed grandparents. It was won by Ms Harsh Gulati, grandparent of Nandini Gulati; best intellectual reply of grandparent — the prize was won by Dr Prem Chand Sofat grandparent of Rio sofat. Most charming grandparent was Sukhbeer Kaur, grandparent of Komalpreet. A cake was also cut collectively. Everybody dispersed after having a small snacks party.

Workshop on time management

JCI, Ludhiana, organised a comprehensive workshop on ‘Time Management’ in the premises of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, BRS Nagar, here yesterday. The organisation also called as youth organisation works on personality development programme and conducts training programmes for school students, businessmen and managers in fields like public speaking, time management etc.

The JCI team comprising project director Sandeep Goyal, the convener Rajesh, resource person J.P. Aggarwal and the co-faulty member Didar Singh motivated the young minds and enriched them with thought provoking ideas and suggestions on time management. So informative was the talk that the students listened with rapt attention.

Workshop on IDU size estimation

The Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), RRTC (North), New Delhi, in collaboration with Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle held a one day workshop on ‘IDU size estimation for Peer Led Intervention’ at GGSSC, Model Town, here yesterday. Around seven peer educators and three project support persons from various drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres participated in this day long workshop.

Mr Nitesh Kumar and Mr Gaurav Kishore, regional coordinators, SPYM said that one of the biggest problems the world was facing today was the growing rate of HIV/AIDS and the problem was on a constant rise among drug addicts. He said that the injecting drug users were more prone to this noxious disease because of using unsafe methods to inject drugs. Once HIV entered any IDU population, the virus could spread very quickly. Awareness campaigns, behavior change and capacity building programmes were crucial for halting the spread of HIV.

ASER survey on status of education
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 12
In order to provide a true picture of the tall claims of the government of providing quality education to all children between the age of 6 to14 years, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a chapter of Pratham Organisation, an NGO, will be conducting a survey on the status of education all over India. In Punjab, the survey would be conducted from October 2 to 29.

Mr Bharat Deep, Program Manager for Ludhiana, said, "During the survey, 18 districts would be covered, which would include 30 villages per district in Punjab. Six hundred households per district would be surveyed. The survey would be done through computers.

"He also said this exercise involved and was funded by hundreds of individuals across the country. ASER 2005 was a wake-up call to draw attention of the citizens to the reality of poor learning standards in elementary schools across India.

During the exercise, the volunteers were not always welcomed everywhere, he said. At times, they had to face great difficulties for collecting the data.

ASER 2005 showed that children begin to lag behind from standard I. In most states, except for Kerala, the results showed that 30-50 per cent children in standard I could not recognise alphabets even after spending 4-5 months in schools.

"The exercise is not to condemn the teaching methods but to further improve these to educate more children", said Mr Deep.

Lok Adalat to dispose of pending challans
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 12
In order to clear the backlog of thousands of traffic challans in different courts of Ludhiana, a Lok Adalat would be organised by the District Legal Services Authority under the supervision of its Chairman Harbans Lal on September 16 at Judicial Courts Complex.

Giving the details, Mr Harbans Lal said summons had been issued to over11,000 persons for appearing before the Lok Adalat to dispose of f their pending challans. For the convenience of the general public, 21 benches have been constituted. The summons have been issued for pending challans upto July 31, 2006.

The Lok Adalat is being organised with the active cooperation of the local traffic police. The PCR men have been assigned the job to ensure the service of summons.