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Farmers asked to adopt net-house cultivation of vegetables
Ludhiana November 1 This was stated by the Chairman of the commission, Dr G.S. Kalkat, at a field day in Nawan Jatpur village (Hoshiarpur) today. Such an approach, he said, would be beneficial in two ways: one, the vegetables so produced would be free from chemical toxicity and two, the cost of cultivation would be less. Another benefit would be growing off-season vegetables for higher profits. Dr Kalkat urged farmers, who had gathered in large numbers at the farm of progressive farmer Malkiat Singh, to adopt cotton, soybean, oil seeds, pulses and vegetables as remunerative alternatives to paddy. He said the state government was making every effort to persuade the Central Government to give higher remunerative returns for the suggested alternatives to paddy. “Dairy farming and fisheries, if taken up on scientific lines, are yet another viable alternative to crop husbandry. “All these vocations are labour intensive,” he said. He expressed his concern over the future of children, particularly dropouts because of “constantly falling standards of school education.” The PAU Vice-Chancellor, Dr K.S. Aulakh, told the farmers that the quality of farm produce, henceforth, would be as important as the quantity. This aspect was important if farmers were to compete in the world market to sell their produce and hope for better returns. “The scientists at PAU are working to evolve strategies which will make farm produce toxic-free.” He expressed his concern over a steep fall in ground-water level and held paddy responsible for this. The farmers must form self-help groups and take to marketing at their own level, eliminate middlemen and earn more profit. Farmers, he continued, should also exercise austerity in spending on social occasions and at the same time learn the art of maintaining farm accounts to judge for themselves their profits and losses from different agricultural practices. “Such an approach will also act as a mirror for them to judge if they wanted to raise loans or not or if they have the capacity to re-pay or not. For value addition to farm produce, agro processing is necessary. And processing will become possible if only quality is good,” he said. A member of the PAU Board of Management, Ms Supinder Kaur Cheema, urged the farmers to adopt cost-effective technologies. She suggested that the farm women must also play a role in providing proper education and diet to their children. Dr
K.S. Sandhu, adviser to the State Farmers Commission, welcomed the farmers and the university experts. The field day was jointly organised by PAU, Farmers’ Commission and the State Bank of India. The bank AGM, Mr Jaspal Rai, BJP MLA Mr Tikshan Sood and Baba Gurdev Singh Harian Welan Walian also spoke. Several university scientists and extension specialists working under the Farm Advisory Service Scheme at Hoshiarpur were at hand to give tips on the package of practices for different crops. Several government departments had put up an exhibition on different aspects of farming. A vote of thanks was proposed by Senior District Extension Specialist Dr Inderjit Singh Hundal. Among the special guests were Chief Agricultural Officer, Hoshiarpur, Mr Kulbir Singh Deol and vice-president, Exports, Sonalika International Tractors, Vijay Sehgal.
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From Schools and Colleges Our Correspondent
Ludhiana, November 1 Jaspreet Kaur of Class IX threw light on the life of Sri Guru Nanak Dev. The chief guest on the occasion was Ms Surinder Raikhi who had come from Delhi. The director and founder Principal of the school, Ms Avinash Kaur Walia, emphasised upon the need of spiritual enlightenment in today’s fast-paced and materialistic world. Ms Raikhi implored the students to learn good things from the life of Guru Nanak Dev and choose the path illuminated by our religious Gurus. Halloween party The Little Kingdom Nursery school organised a Halloween fancy dress party. The children came dressed in their Halloween costumes. Immense creativity was displayed in the attires worn by the tiny tots. There were friendly witches, pumpkins, dragons, fairies and God mothers, bats, balloon vendors, clowns, trees, police men, wizards and gnomes, etc. The school was decorated tastefully in orange pumpkins and “Casper — the friendly ghost”. Jack-o-lanterns were hanging at the school gate. The children enjoyed the pumpkin hunt, passing the pumpkin, ghost bowling, Halloween Pinnata, making of Halloween treat bags and many Halloween activities. All children were rewarded with Halloween treats. GNC girls shine Guru Nanak Girls College, Model Town, has won the maximum number of prizes in the Zonal Youth Festival held at the SDP College for Women recently. It surpassed its own record by winning 21 positions. It was a majestic achievement for the college to have won the maximum number of first positions. In total, 12 first positions, five second and four third positions were claimed by the students in various events. The Principal of the college, Dr Charanjit Mahal, congratulated students for their achievements. Declamation contest An English declamation competition was held at Baba Isher Singh (N) Senior Secondary Public School, BRS Nagar, here on Tuesday in which students from Classes VI to XII participated. In this inter-house competition, 24 students took part from houses of Sahibzada Ajit Singh House, Sahibzada Jhujhar Singh House, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh House and Sahibzada Fateh Singh House. Judges for the competition were Principal Aneeta Kundra and Vice-Principal Sarabjeet Kaur Khattra. Students expressed their views on topics like challenge of terrorism, participation of students in politics, what is independence?, the spirit of youth, freedom of success, leisure — how to use it, generation gap, etc. Addressing the students, Ms Kundra said such competitions provided a platform to the students to showcase their talent. Freshers’ party A freshers’ party was organised by the students of Primary Teacher Training (PTT) course run by the Mother Teresa Foundation at Baba Isher Singh Senior Secondary Public School, BRS Nagar, here on Tuesday. Chairman of the foundation Ravinder Singh, who inaugurated the programme, came from Mohali to encourage the students. Ms Kamaljit, Ms Sapna and Ms Dupinder Kaur were crowned Miss Fresher and first and second runners-up, respectively. The students had planned and executed the entire programme keeping in mind the diversity of the students' family background, giving it a modern as well as a traditional look. There was a perfect blend of cat walk, folk songs, folk dance, group dance, group song and giddha on the stage. Meeting A meeting of the Northern India CBSE Schools Welfare Association was held at Green Land Senior Secondary Public School here on Tuesday under the presidentship of Mr Rajesh Rudhra, chairman-cum-director of the chain of Green Land Schools. The meeting was attended by delegates from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh. The general problems faced by the CBSE-affiliated schools and role played by them in providing quality education and removing illiteracy was discussed. The menace of female foeticide was highlighted at the meeting and stress was laid on the role of schools in spreading awareness amongst the students to get rid of gender bias. Mr Rudhra said the association would play a major role in working for the redressal of current problems. He also lauded the efforts of Mr Ashok Ganguly, Chairman of the CBSE, who had reformed the education system and given it a new life. It was decided that the next conference would be held next month in which around 2,000 delegates from different states would participate along with the Chief Minister of Punjab.
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Bengal delegation visits PAU
Ludhiana November 1 The delegation, led by Dr Mortoza Hossain, Minister in charge, Relief and Agricultural Marketing Department, Government of West Bengal, was at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today to know how the university has contributed to Punjab’s agriculture. In a meeting with the Deans, Directors and senior scientists of the university, the delegation wanted to know how the farmers of Punjab had been able to achieve higher levels of production and in what way the university had contributed to the prosperity of farmers. The Dean, College of Agriculture Dr G.S. Chahal, who presided over the meeting, gave a brief account of the activities of the university and its linkages with farmers. Dr Chahal told the members of the delegation that cropping intensity in Punjab is more than 180 per cent. Almost entire cultivation area is irrigated and the Punjab farmers are sustaining high production level with the use of chemical fertilisers and assured irrigation. Over the years, the university has developed several high yielding varieties of different crops. “Farmers have full faith in the university. They grow only the university-recommended varieties and follow complete package of practices for their cultivation. Almost the entire state is covered by varieties that are evolved and recommended by the university,” Dr Chahal said. The delegation members shared their experiences of marketing infrastructure in their home state. The members were also shown Crop Museum, Museum of Water and Power Resources and Museum of Rural History of Punjab in the university.
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Three honoured at school function
Amloh, November 1 Dr Jasvir Singh Mundi, an NRI from Canada, announced that he would arrange for higher education of students of the school in Canada through RNI Sabha. He gave a sum of Rs 2100 to the students who performed cultural programme on the occasion. Mr Amandeep Faizulapur read the progress report of the school. Prof Darshan Singh, from Khanna, advised the students to seek the help of their parents in saving environment from pollution. As many as 150 saplings were planted by students and dignitaries on the school campus. Mr Sood, Mr Mundi and Prof Darshan Singh were honoured for their outstanding performance in the field of education by Capt Jawala Singh, Chairman of the school managing committee. Later in the evening Mr Sood was honoured at another function organised at Government Secondary School, Amloh by the Chairman, PUSVIK, President, PTA, Principal and the staff of the school.
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Cal-C streamlines form acceptance process
Ludhiana, November 1 Reacting to the reports of chaos at the centre, the centre managers said, some people had levelled baseless allegations that the forms of the candidates who had offered money were being accepted. They said the token system had been evolved taking in view the large number of candidates and instructions from the head office to fill 40 forms each day. The tokens were given on a first-come-first-serve basis and all those people who came late were not able to get tokens. The directions about issuing tokens were displayed outside the institute well in advance, they claimed. The centre manager even alleged that some people used abusive language and misbehaved with the staff members. Some of the people even threatened to malign the image of the centre. The unruly crowd of applicants wanted out of turn submission of forms which was not done to maintain decorum. They even alleged that the crowd damaged the furniture of the institute and created chaos and even small items were found missing from the institute. The centre officials said, ‘‘our institution was authorised by C-DAC, Mohali, to collect limited forms to the extent of 40 forms per day only. Taking in view the inconvenience faced by the people, our institution decided to deploy extra staff to accommodate the applicants and filled 70-75 forms per day’’. They regretted that instead of appreciating the efforts of the institute people had given false and baseless statements.
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Consumer Forum’s office inaugurated
Ludhiana, November 1 Justice R.S. Mongia, President of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, accompanied by the District and Sessions Judge, Mr Harbans Lal, inaugurated the new office of the forum allocated near the Labour Court. Earlier, he was given a warm welcome by Mr A.S. Narula, president of the Consumer Forum, the chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Mr Harish Rai Dhanda, Mr Naval Kishore Chhibber, president of the District Bar Association, and its secretary, Mr Rajneesh Gupta. The Additional Sessions Judges, Mr Sanjeev Berry, Mr Satwinder Singh, Mr Gurbir Singh, Mr R.L. Ahuja, Mr Jagroop Singh Mahal, Mr S.S. Dhaliwal (Civil Judge, Senior
Division), Mr K.S. Cheema, Chief Judicial Magistrate, members of the forum Daljit Singh Bakshi and Pooja Dewan were also present. Later, Justice Mongia addressed a function organised by the Group of Friends Advocates. Mr Mongia said shifting of the office of the forum would end the woes of the lawyers. They had to face a lot of problem in attending the cases at the forum after covering a distance of 4 km. Mr Dhanda and Mr Naval Kishore Chhibber discussed the problems faced by the lawyers in view of shifting the forum office to the Judicial Complex. He said it would speed up the disposal of cases pending before the forum with the easy availability of lawyers. He lauded the role of Justice Viney Mittal, administrative Judge of Ludhiana Sessions Division, in extending full cooperation in the move. Cabinet minister Harnam Das Johar announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the forum, besides Rs 2 lakh for the Sales Tax Bar Association. He inaugurated a medical dispensary at the complex. Meanwhile, Mr Vijay Mehra, Mr Parminder Pari, Mr David Gill cracked jokes and sang folk songs. Former Bar presidents, Mr Balwinder Goel, Mr Hemant Kalia and Mr K.R. Sikri, senior lawyers, Mr P.D. Sharma, Mr Dharmjit Singh Khera and Mr Harish Narang were also present.
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