The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Congress wants Central forces to stay for counting BSF men prepare to leave; Admn petitions EC to extend their stay Rajay Deep Tribune News Service Bathinda, May 14 Days before the counting of votes in this 'high profile' Lok Sabha seat begins, removal of the BSF jawans from the strong rooms where the EVMs have been kept, has led to a new controversy. Though the district administration claimed no role in the development, but the Congress workers took offence and immediately brought the matter to the notice of the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Punjab. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the administration too contacted the ECI and the CEO to tackle the situation. Meanwhile, the Returning Officer and the SSP, Bathinda, deputed the same number of state police jawans in place of the BSF jawans who have been removed. Apprehensive, the Congressmen have mobilised their own partymen to observe the movement around the strong rooms. Getting nod from the RO, District Congress (Rural) president, Narender Bhaleria, among others, made a surveillance of all the strong rooms and deputed his men at each centre. Clarifying his position, Returning Officer for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari said, "It was not my decision as the Central forces are deputed by the Union Home Ministry. About 2-3 days back, the SSP received a letter for relieving the Central forces but we pleaded for their stay till the counting was over. No reply was received from the department concerned." "Today, some officers of the BSF approached the SSP saying they would catch the train by 4 am on Friday, if no written order is received. We immediately brought the matter to the notice of the EC and CEO but are still awaiting orders from their side," he added. When contacted, SSP Ashish Chaudhary said, "I have been verbally asked to retain them but till 8 pm, I did not receive any orders in writing. I have been told that the Union Home Ministry has issued orders to the Director General of BSF, from where the order would reach us by midnight."
	Rice millers against PAU 201 Say paddy variety has high breakage Anil Jerath Tribune News Service Bathinda, May 14 Farmers in the state are in tizzy. While the agricultural experts of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) are motivating the farmers to sow its new paddy variety PAU 201 introduced in 2007, the millers of the state have announced that they will not mill this variety at all. Explaining the reason for doing so, Ajmer Singh, president, Punjab Rice Millers' Association, remarked, "The state government sends the procured paddy to millers and in return, we provide them with rice. The government has clear-cut guidelines on what kind of rice it wants and the quantity of breakage that it will pay for." "However, in case of PAU 201, which has been recommended by both the PAU and the state government, the breakage is very high. The government pays us for just three per cent breakage while in case of PAU 201 the breakage is as high as 10-12 per cent. We cannot afford so much of loss and thus, we will not let the government bring this variety to us for milling," he said. Meanwhile, Dr P.S. Minhas, director, research, PAU, while talking to TNS over phone from Ludhiana, said, "This variety is boon for Punjab as it matures two weeks earlier than PUSA 44, uses less water and is resistant to white-backed plant hopper." He further claimed that this variety was released after multi-location testing in different agro-climatic zones of Punjab. It may be mentioned here that the PAU-201 variety was in the news during the last paddy season, where the procurement agencies refused to procure it on the grounds of discolouration of the rice grain found after milling. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had to intervene to ensure its procurement last year by the procurement agencies. The PAU experts claimed that the tests carried out had proved that the rice of this variety is normal and white in colour after milling and polishing. "The tests showed that rice and bran made out of this variety are better in quality and quantity. Out of the total area of 26.6 lakh hectares under paddy last year, one fifth was under PAU-201. The research and tests were conducted at three rice shellers of this region," the experts added. When contacted, Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, agriculture development officer, Bathinda, told The Tribune that he had conducted tests on this variety. The tests proved not only positive but also confirmed that the rice and rice bran made out of this variety were better in quality and quantity than any other variety. He also stated that average yield of the PAU 201 was 34.40 quintal per acre which is higher than the other varieties. Moreover, the PAU-201 variety takes 20 days less in maturity than other varieties, Brar added.
	Shortage of labour, paddy schedule rattle farmers Anjali Singh Deswal Tribune News Service Bathinda, May 14 Shortage of labour and the time frame set by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) for preparing paddy seedlings and planting them in the fields, has created panic among the farmers of the region. Hiring labour has become costlier than last year. In 2007, the per acre labour charge was Rs 600 which rose to Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 last year. This year, the farmers are fearing that this would go up to Rs 2,500. Sensing the situation, Dheera Singh, a farmer from Bathinda block, told the Tribune that he had given Rs 1,300 as labour charge for one acre last year and this year he has already given an advance to ensure that he gets labour on time. "Already the labour charges are becoming steep. The problem becomes worse when the labourers unite and start charging more. We are suffering at the hands of the government," Dheera added. Another farmer, Gurdeep Singh, has paid Rs 200 advance per acre for his 11 acres of land. Though he has given Rs 2,200 already but he is not sure about how much more he would have to dish out as he is fearing that the per acre charge might cross the Rs 2500 mark. Gurdeep said that the labour shortage is because of NREGA implementation in UP and Bihar because of which laboureres in these states are getting work in their home state and are not hence, migrating. One more condition that is adding to the panic among farmers is following the time frame for planting paddy set by the PAU to save water. According to K.K. Singla, information officer of the agriculture department, for common varieties of paddy, the time for preparing seedlings is from May 15 to May 30. For planting seedlings further, the time limit would be June 15 to June 30. For PAU 201 variety, the time for planting seedlings in the fields is from June 25 to July 5. Punjab mehak, PUSA 1121 and PUSA basmati No.1, being basmati varieties, the time for preparing seedlings is from June 1 to June 15 and the time for planting seedlings in fields is from July 1 to July 15. There are two more varieties, basmati 386 and basmati 370. The time for preparing seedling of these varieties is from June 15 to June 30 and for planting these seedlings in the fields, the period stipulated is from July 15 to July 30. According to the Bhartiya Kissan Union, the government's wish to save water by following the time frame for planting paddy is not justified because Bathinda is a cotton growing belt and had the government provided appropriate subsidies for cotton, then the farmers would not have planted paddy.
	Pvt schools take lead in Class VIII Boards Govt schools lag behind Anjali Singh Deswal Tribune News Service Bathinda, May 14 Like every year, this time private schools have taken the lead in class VIII Board result. Teachers of government schools argue that they are given no time to teach. Punjab Education Board's Class VIII merit list has 517 children but only three students belong to government schools. In private schools also, students who are in merit list belong to those schools that are in urban areas. In Bathinda, 49 students are in the merit list and only one is from a government school. Three students who are from government schools are from Government Senior Secondary School, Chugekala, near Bathinda, government school in Draj and a government school in Ghunn. After speaking to the teachers of government schools, many reasons for the low performance surfaced. Darshan Singh Maur, state committee member of the Democratic Teachers' Front, told The Tribune that government schools do not have enough teachers. “We managed to have adequate staff only last year when some teachers were recruited. Before that there were no teachers in schools. These teachers are asked to do a lot of non-teaching jobs. Children who study in government schools are mostly those who are from a humble background and have uneducated parents. They do not get to study at home," Maur added. Teachers also felt that the various schemes being run by the government in schools are inimical to education. "We have to attend seminars for 15 to 20 days and children get neglected. Those who come to these seminars do not know anything themselves. They tell us that it is just a formality we are undertaking," a teacher said. Rajesh Monga, district president of the Mathematics Teachers' Association, said, "Last year, I got only 150 days to teach out of the 365 days. For the rest of the days, we were busy attending seminars, collecting data required by the government, doing research work and attending assigned duties. No one knows what use these data have. Teachers in government schools do everything except teaching. Private school teachers might be working for less salary but they teach. We want to teach our students and see them doing well but the government does not give us time." Sources also said that in 95 per cent government schools, the post of the principal is lying vacant. "A team has been sent by the director general, education, to visit government schools to assess their work. This time when they come, we will gherao them and ask them what they are doing to upgrade the standard of education in schools. They do not allow us to teach by giving us useless work. This team only lowers the morale of the teachers by blaming them for the poor performance," Monga added.
	Malwa girls shine in PU BA results Raj Sadosh Abohar, May 14 Malwa girls have outshone others bagging top four positions in the belated merit list of the BA final exam conducted by the Panjab University in April 2008. Shaifali of the SD College for Women, Moga, has topped. In all, 27,665 students had appeared in the exam. While the PU took more than ten months to finalise its merit list after completing the much delayed process of rechecking and re-evaluation, there was jubilation in the Gopi Chand Arya Mahila College as principal Dr Neelam Arun Mittu received a letter from the university informing that Shaina Garg of the college has got the second position securing 83.1 per cent marks. She is pursuing her B.Ed now. She had got the second and first position in BA Part I and II respectively. The college will honour her, Mittu said. Kavita Mittal and Ritu Mittal of the Moga-based SD College for Women shared the third position securing 1992 marks each. Rashmi Luthra of the same college came fourth with 1988 marks. Interestingly, the colleges based at Chandigarh, Ludhiana and other cities trail behind in securing the top positions. Malwa region has hogged the limelight of late with several candidates from the region making it to the coveted civil services including the Bathinda girl, Sharanjit Kaur Brar, who bagged the second position in the exam for the elite services.
	Lok Sabha elections Preparations in place for counting Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service Moga, May 14 Moga district administration has almost made adequate arrangements for counting of votes. Counting for Moga, Dharamkot, Baghapurana and Nihalsinghwala Assembly segments would be carried out at indoor stadium amid tight security arrangements. Revealing this to The Tribune, Satwant Singh Johal district magistrate said that all the electronic voting machines from the respective polling stations had arrived at the district headquarters, which have been kept in the strong rooms under the strict vigil of the security forces. Similarly, the counting of Faridkot, Kotkapura and Jaito Assembly segments would be conducted at Faridkot while the counting of Gidderbaha and Rampura Phul Assembly segments would be conducted there. Meanwhile, the EC has issued some vital instructions in order to rationalise the counting centres. It has directed the respective returning officers and the district magistrates to appoint one official of the Union government on every counting table for expediting the counting work and maintaining the standard of accuracy in the process. Besides, the observers have also been permitted to deploy an additional micro- observer for each of the counting halls with a view to undertake the random parallel checking of any two EVMs or tables in every round of the counting. The instruction reads as, "There will be one Central government official on every table as counting micro-observer, who will ensure after thorough checking that the purity of the counting process is maintained and the results at each table are correctly tabulated." In another significant directive, the persons having security cover have also been banned from becoming counting agents. The EC has cleared that a contesting candidate, whether he is a sitting (MP or MLA) has the right to be present in the counting hall in addition to counting agent. But, they would be permitted with a rider that security persons with arms should not get into the counting hall. Further, "Such candidates will be asked to give an undertaking that they are surrendering their security on their own to sit in the hall.” The exception will be in the case of SPG guards or other similarly placed persons, who can be permitted to be accompanied with one SPG personnel in plain clothes.