Bathinda, January 9
In order to create awareness about Mealy bug menace among farmers, the district administration has decided to chalk out a comprehensive awareness drive.

Under this campaign, farmers will be informed about ways and means to tackle Mealy bug during cotton off-season.

Experts from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, state agriculture department, village panchayats, youth clubs and other government departments would be part of this campaign.

A meeting in this regard, which was chaired by deputy commissioner Rahul Tewari, was held last evening.

The white, persistent Mealy bug, also called chitti bhoondi by farmers, is considered deadlier than the American bollworm and has not responded to the extensive spraying of pesticides by farmers.

Gurdwaras of Bathinda villages would also be involved in control of Mealy bug menace in the cotton belt.

The speakers of Gurdwaras will educate the farmers for the proper control of the Mealy bug.

The proliferation of weeds like Congress grass (Parthenium hysterophorus), which mainly grows in or around cotton fields, banks of water channels and wastelands, is a major host of the pest.

“If the farmers want to eradicate the menace, this weed should be removed from in and around the fields. We have constituted 10 teams, which will monitor the crops and visit all the villages in Bathinda block, to inform the farmers about the ways to eradicate this pest,’’ Gurmit Singh Buttar, director, Punjab Agricultural University Regional Research Station, Bathinda said.

In the February assembly elections in Punjab, the victory of the Congress in assembly seats from the once Akali Dal stronghold of Malwa was credited to the two years of success of the genetically modified Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton crop with its bumper yields and returns.

But in the first cotton season after the Akalis took over in Punjab, the mealy bug has wreaked devastation in Malwa’s fields.

The Bt cotton protects the crop only against one pest and cotton is attacked by almost 165 pests.

This raises the chances of a resurgence of secondary pests and farmers end up spraying the same quantity of pesticide on their crop as they did earlier.

The emergence of the mealy bug as a Bt cotton pest in Punjab also appears to be a case of secondary pest resurgence, and no amount or type of pesticide has been able to control it.

Last month, a high-powered committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Agriculture also visited village Balluana to ascertain the ground realities regarding the impact of Mealy bug.

Bathinda, January 9
The police on Wednesday exhumed the body of a new-born baby girl, who had died under mysterious circumstances on December 27, from the cremation ground at Jogi Nagar here, to ascertain the cause of her death.

As per information, the baby girl, who was born in a hospital located at Paras Ram Nagar, here, run by the Goodwill Society, was found dead after few hours by the hospital authorities.

When the authorities concerned asked about the incident, the mid wife, Paro, who took the mother of the baby to the hospital and was present with her whole time, started accusing the hospital authorities of negligence towards their duty.

Sources said that the hospital authorities found the nose of the baby ‘blue’, which is normally not the case in natural death.

On January 3, the PNDT cell procured a CD of a reported sting operation, which disclosed the conversation of a person claiming himself a media reporter with the staff of the hospital and the society concerned.

The CD has exposed that the president of the Goodwill Society, Vijay Bhareja while clarifying the allegation leveled upon the hospital staff for negligence, said that the lady should had undergone some ultra sound before giving birth to the baby girl if she did not want to accept her.

It has been reported that the mother of the baby, Sushma, wife of Surender Kumar, an employee of a dairy in the city, have two daughters and a son.

The project officer of the PNDT cell, Sadhu Ram Kusla, said the CD had been submitted to the DC and then it was referred to the SSP, Bathinda, who marked the inquiry to the SP (city). The Kotwali police registered a case against Sushma, Surender and Paro under sections 302, 201 and 34 of the IPC on Tuesday.

When contacted over phone, the president of the Goodwill Society, Vijay Bhareja, termed it as an accidental case.

He said, “The whole incident seems to be planted, as the father of the baby told me that the reporter had some kind of dispute with him and wanted him to trap in some false case.”

“It seems very untrue that the lady herself killed the baby, because if it was to be done then it could be done during pregnancy also,” he added.

To ascertain the fact, the police team, comprising ASP (city), Harsh Kumar Bansal, Duty Magistrate, Karnail Singh and some doctors of the Civil Hospital, today exhumed the body, which was found, decomposed and wrapped in cloth.

When the doctors present at the spot were contacted they said the fact would be cleared only after proper investigation. A sample would be sent for the DNA tests also, they added.

The Naib Tehsildar, Karnail Singh said he was there as he was deputed as duty magistrate and was not aware of the whole case so only after investigation he would be able to speak over the issue.

Abohar, January 9
The city unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (B) has invited applications from its workers for all 31 wards to decide candidates for the coming municipal council elections, a party spokesman said, after a workers’ meeting held in a local gurudwara here.

The meeting also discussed participation in the Maghi Mela Conference being organised jointly by the ruling alliance on January 14 at Muktsar.

The party had contested from four of the 31 wards here and left rest of the seats for the Bhartiya Janta Party, but could get only one candidate elected in the last election. The BJP too had not faired well then.

Meanwhile, Dinesh Garg, district secretary of the SAD (B) Youth Wing, also had a meeting with the workers here today.

He said the workers were being activated for overwhelming participation in the Maghi Mela besides municipal elections.

In a changed scenario, the SAD (B) would stake claim on more seats during the municipal election compared to the last elections, which were held in 2003.

Garg claimed the workers were determined to give better performance as the party had regained popularity in the Malwa region.

Being the major ruling alliance partner, the SAD (B) had right to claim more share in distribution of seats with the BJP.

The youth wing, he said, would welcome if the SAD (B) working president Sukhbir Singh Badal was elevated as the chief minister.

On the other hand, the city BJP president Ravi Setia also addressed a meeting of the office bearers of the Yuva Morcha, youth wing of the BJP, here today and asked them to gear up for the next municipal elections.

He wanted the Morcha to organise fortnightly meetings and work out strategies to wrest the control of the local council from the Congress.

He hoped the SAD (B)-BJP alliance would give the Congress a crushing defeat in the entire region.

Bathinda, January 9
The poor condition within the Central Jail at Jalandhar was brought to the notice of the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Simranjeet Singh Mann, president of the SAD(A), in August last year when he was lodged there.

In light of the recent violent incidents in the jail, activists of the SAD(A) today provided a copy of the letter to the TNS that Mann had sought to be treated as a petition. He had sent the letter to the Chief Justice to appraise him of the ‘ill condition’ prevailing in the prison.

The letter dated August 11, 2007, pointed out that the condition of the jail was worst than a pigsty and regular inspection by officers was not being done.

Narrating the scene at the Jalandhar Jail, Mann wrote: “I am forwarding an application on behalf of numerous under trial prisoners of this jail who are not getting a speedy trial as per the article 21 of the Indian Constitution.”

“In my jail there are prisoners over seventy years of age. There are many who have spent over 13 years as the life imprisonment and they should have released at the conclusion of this period,” he mentioned in the letter.

Further he mentioned about some AIDS patients, including one, who had spent 19 years in this jail. He also wrote about the prisoners who had been suffering from tuberculosis but were not receiving the proper diet, which should be given out of the funds provided by the government of India for the purpose.

Mann mentioned in the letter that there were 10 prisoners who were of unsound mind and needed psychiatric care and should have been sent to the Mental asylum at Amritsar long ago.

He wrote in his letter about the poor medical and electricity facilities in the jail and termed the barracks as a ‘furnace and inflaming hell’.

He wrote about the poor infrastructure in the jail and cautioned that it could collapse any time.

In the letter, he requested the registrar of the High Court, the union and the state home secretaries and the director-general of prisons be called as the respondents in the writ petition.

When advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal, through whom the petition has been filed, was contacted on phone, he said, “The matter has been raised and the High Court has issued a notice to the state to file its reply, which is still pending.”

Mansa, January 9
As the rainwater clogged the city streets, the residents here had a tough time in passing through the streets. The residents rued the poor sewerage system in the city.

The residents of Labh Singh Street, Dheer Street, Court Road and Sabzi Mandi here said that children could not go to school as rainwater accumulated on the streets.

It was nearly impossible for them to walk through the streets.

Jagseer Singh Billu and Bhinder Singh, residents of Dheer Street, said that water choked the city streets for lack of effective sewerage system.

They added that their children and wives could not go out of houses.

Sukhcharan Singh Danewalia, leader of the CPI (ML), and Balkaran Balli, a kisan leader, said that the Municipal Council was responsible for the bad conditions on the streets.

When president of the Municipal Council Narottam Singh Chahal was contacted he admitted that there were some obstacles in the disposal of sewerage and dirty water.

Efforts were on to tackle these problems, he added.

Bathinda, January 9
The National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), Bathinda unit, under its corporate social responsibility programme, distributed scholarships among 20 meritorious students from class -I to X of the Government Elementary School and Government High School, Gill Patti, and the Government Senior Secondary School, Bhokhra, and school dresses among around 100 children of the Government Elementary School, Kheta Singh Basti. Chief general manger, NFL, Bathinda, K.S. Gill distributed the scholarships and school dresses at the aforementioned schools. On the occasion, Sugriv Chand, DGM (HR), other senior officials, NFL Union and Officers’ Association representatives, principals of the schools were also present.

NFL distributed the scholarship out of the special welfare fund which has a contribution of employees and the NFL management.

NFL management has been contributing towards development of surrounding areas and welfare of needy families. 

Abohar, January 9
A.P.S. Brar, state president of the All Punjab Gramin Bank Officers Association, said here today that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a recent meeting with the representatives of the joint forum of the Gramin bank unions, had given a favourable response to the issues raised, including parity in superannuation benefits and other allowances with the commercial bank employees and assured that the matter would be routed through the union finance minister very soon.

CPM MP Basudeb Acharya had led the deputation comprising Dalip Mukherji, convener of the forum, and other senior functionaries.

Presently, the regional rural bank personnel were deprived of pension facility besides other benefits, which were to be at par in accordance with the eighth bipartite settlement.

Brar informed after amalgamation there were 96 regional rural banks with more than 14,500 branches and the system on a whole was earning a profit of Rs 1,000 crore annually.

Mansa, January 9
The Revolutionary Youth Association, Punjab, and the All India Students’ Association in a meeting here today have decided to take part in the struggle of farmers being fought to get the reasonable prices of the acquired land.

The two organisations would participate in the dharna of farmers on January 10 in front of the deputy commissioner’s office.

Kanwaljeet Singh, state convenor of the Revolutionary Youth Association, said the government had been exploiting the farmers by acquiring land at low prices and giving the benefits to the private companies. — OC

Bathinda, January 9
Civil Lines police today arrested one reporter and a photographer of a Punjabi magazine red handed while they were allegedly accepting bribe from a cattle feed businessman from Lal Singh Basti.

The accused were later identified as Jasvir Singh of Talwandi Sabo and Aman Deep of Lal Singh Basti.

The complainant, the owner of Jindal feed, Narender Jindal said, “Both them came to my factory on Friday and threatened me to drag in a case as they were having some photographs related to my unethical business deeds. As I was certain of my clean business I refused to pay the amount of Rs 50,000. Then they threatened to assault me.”

“After the negotiation the deal was fixed at 16,000 out of which Rs.10,000 were paid on the spot and the rest 6,000 was decided to be paid on Wednesday. I disclosed the whole to the police and then their every call were under scrutiny,” he added.

When the accused were contacted at the police station, they said, “We received the tip-off and to get the photo graphs clicked, we went there. It is all fake story that the owner of the factory concocted to save himself.”

The in-charge of the case, Ranjit Singh, said that the currency notes have been recovered, the number of which were already with the police. A case has been registered under section 384 of the IPC and the investigation has been going on to ascertain the facts.

Abohar, January 9
The district and sessions courts at Sriganganagar on Tuesday had rejected the bail application moved by one Birma Devi, who had been arrested by the police for allegedly poisoning her husband to death on October 1 last year, sources said.

The police said a case had been registered at Raziasar police station against Birma Devi, her father Het Ram, brothers Jagdish Lal and Subhash Chander.

In another case, the chief judicial magistrate at Sriganganagar had rejected the bail plea of two persons, who had allegedly assaulted and looted a farmer on December 28, sources said on Wednesday.

According to the information, one Nanak Singh had gone to Sriganganagar from village Ruhrianwali. On return, three persons attacked him and snatched Rs 3000 from him. The police had arrested Golu and Vinod Kumar, both local residents, in this connection. — OC

Mansa, January 9
With the cooperation of Kishangarh’s village panchayat, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sports Club organised tournaments of kabaddi and cricket at the village here.

As many as 138 teams participated in the kabaddi tournament while 50 teams took part in the cricket tournament.

The kabaddi team from Dirhba stood first in the open category while the team from Kakrala village took the second position. In the 65 kg weight category, the kabaddi teams of Tungwali and Jakhepal received first and second positions respectively. In the 47 kg weight category, the kabaddi teams of Bareta and Raipur Makha stood first and second respectively.

The teams of Bareta and Kishangarh took away the first and second position respectively in the cricket tournament.

The chief guest Mangat Rai Bansal, MLA from Budhlada, gave an aid of Rs 5,100 to the club.

On the occasion, Baljeet Singh Sidhu, ADC of Mansa, gave a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the gram panchayat for the development of school.

Barnala, January 9
In order to create awareness among the public about the importance of educating girl child, the theatre group of the Mother Teacher School here would stage a street play at the various points in and around the city . The play would be staged on January 11 and 12.

C.H. Lal, director of the school, informed that the plays would be staged at Sanghera and Cheema villages.

The plays would also be staged at Nehru chowk, Agarsen chowk, Bus stand and near S.D.College here.

Abohar, January 9
AKS, a dramatic club, is all set to stage Som Pal Heera’s play “Te Rome Jalda Riha” on Friday and Saturday at the DAV College auditorium.

Director Surinder Narula and president Raju Nagpal said at a press conference here on Wednesday that 26 artistes would play roles of 42 characters to highlight the horrible experience of migration of communities during August 1947.

Its script carries letters of noted writer of West Punjab province Illiyas Ghumman.

Kuljit has been specially assigned to give background music to add glory to the poetic script.

A former minister Sajjan Kumar Jakhar will be the chief guest of the inaugural show.

This would be an attempt to depict how the politicians preferred to play like Nero of the Rome in the sub-continent, whereas the bitterness among the communities of different faiths on both sides of the border was avoidable, Narula said.