Bathinda, May 24
Before the mealy bug could harm the blooming cotton plants, rodents have started attacking the cotton leaves that have just sprouted. Though farmers have been finding it tough to tackle the menace, the agricultural department is still ignorant of the problem.

No medicine, no assistant has been provided to the farmers till date to combat the problem.

During a visit to some villages in Bathinda district, farmers were found carrying water tanks and lathis in hand to kill the rodents destroying their crop.

Mangal Singh of Goniana Kalan said, “We are filling the rat holes with water and when the rodents comes out we are there with lathis to kill them.”

Replying to a query, he said, “It is not a regular practice as two-three seasons ago, we were getting medicines from the agricultural department to kill rats and rodents. Now in the absence of this, we have been forced to bear with the menace.”

Another farmer of village Aaklia, Jaskiran Singh said, “The agriculture department is least bothered about us. On the one hand, the scorching heat is affecting the crop’s growth, and on the other, these rodents have been nibbling at the freshly sprouted leaves of cotton due to which we fear heavy loss this time.”

Masher Singh, an elderly farmer of Maur Mandi said, “Cotton crop in two acres of my land has been spoiled. These days cotton is not a profitable crop so bearing with this loss would really be painful.”

Santokh Singh of Jassi Pau Wali also expressed his worries, saying, “First tackle the rodents, then wait for the mealy bug, then fear untimely rain and finally, struggle for the sale of the crop. This is the life of cotton growing farmer.”

The problem was similar in other cotton growing villages like Chandbhaan, Jeeda and Goniana Khurd etc.

Chief Agricultural Officer, Bathinda, Paramjeet Singh said, “I am out of station. I will ask my subordinates to check the menace. If the problem is found to be serious, a report would be sent to the director, state agriculture department.”

About the medicine to destroy rodents, he said, “For the past couple of years, we have not been receiving it. Now we are hopeful that the issue would be taken up under the Food Security Mission and the medicine would be made available to all.”

Moga, May 24
The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has stayed the proceedings against the local Congress MLA Joginder Pal Jain in a criminal case registered against him on May 13, the polling day for the Lok Sabha elections.

The police had registered a criminal case against him under sections 382, 384, 323, 336, 148, 149 of the IPC and section-3 of the SC/ST Act in the rural police station.

A local resident Jugraj Singh had complained to the police that Jain had beaten him and used language with casteist overtones.

Earlier, Jain had also filed an application for bail before the district and sessions court here, which was still pending.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the complainant Jugraj Singh had reached a compromise with the MLA, which has diluted the case allegedly registered against him due to political vendetta.

Justice Pritam Pal of the High Court while hearing on the petition filed by Jain had on Friday issued notices to the state government and Jugraj Singh, the complainant in this case.

The next date of hearing has been fixed for coming July 10. The counsel for the petitioner has sought quashing of the FIR and subsequent proceedings in view of the compromise reached between the petitioner and the complainant.

On the other hand, Jain alleged that the SAD-BJP government had influenced the local police to register this case against him at the behest of the local SAD leaders.

"I have been the target of the SAD-BJP regime ever since I became an MLA and many cases have been registered against me by the government," he added.

Ferozepur, May 24
Ecstatic Congress leaders of the district today celebrated the formation of Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. At a meeting held at Congress Bhawan on Saturday, the leaders distributed sweets and praised the AICC chief Sonia Gandhi under whose able stewardship, they said their party had achieved unprecedented results in the Lok Sabha polls.Gurnaib Brar, DCC president, said the Congress was the only party which could provide a stable and growth oriented government at the Centre. 

Brar also thanked Sonia Gandhi for choosing a Punjabi Prime Minister once again. He also lauded the efforts of the AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi who he said has revitalised the party.Ex-MLA Ravinder Singh Sandhu said that it was a moment of immense pride and honour for the entire Punjabi community that Dr Manmohan Singh has become the Prime Minister again. 

Sandhu said that the country was poised to become a super economic power with the farsightedness and positive thinking of Dr Singh.

Many other Congress leaders also expressed their happiness and distributed sweets to the shopkeepers in the city and cantonment areas to celebrate the party's victory.

Fazilka, May 24
The BJP activists elated over the success of Sher Singh Ghubaya and his lead in the rural areas of Fazilka Assembly segment in Lok Sabha polls celebrated his victory at the local Shah Palace today. Ghubaya had got a lead of 2300 votes in Fazilka Assembly segment.

BJP state vice-president and local MLA Surjit Kumar Jyani attended the programme as chief guest.

It is pertinent to mention here that there are only two out of the total of 18 Assembly segments in Punjab represented by the BJP MLAs from where the BJP got lead in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Fazilka is one of them.

While addressing the gathering of jubilant workers, Jyani congratulated them for being successful in gaining lead in this segment. He declared that the sarpanches, panches and workers of those villages from where the BJP took lead would be honoured in their respective villages at specially organised programmes there.

He said that the party would further be strengthened in all the villages where it already has a strong base. He said that wherever the polling has been low in favour of the party, it will find out the reason and address the problem.

Highlighting the development policies of SAD-BJP government, Jyani said that several crores have been spent on the development projects in the past two years in urban and rural areas. Now, the development will gain momentum. He urged the sarpanches and panches to prepare a list of incomplete works so that these can be completed.

Launching an attack on the Congress, the BJP leader said that the previous Congress government did not realise the growing demand for power.

He said that the Badal government is engaged in setting up four new power plants in the state to make it a power surplus state by 2011.

Jyani also urged the party workers to apprise the common people about the wrong policies of the Congress as a result of which the prices have skyrocketed. 

Hanumangarh/Abohar, May 24
A minor boy was killed while taking a holy bath in the sarover of Gurdwara Baba Sukha Singh Mehtab Singh in Hanumangarh town on the eve of the Darsh Amavas today.

As per the information available, the boy identified as Balraj Singh of village Munshewala had arrived here to stay with the family members of his maternal uncle. He started taking holy bath early in the morning and moved to the middle, unaware of the depth of the sarovar.

As he waved his hand for help, other devotees fished him out and rushed him to the hospital but the doctors declared him brought dead.

This prompted the management to prevent minor children from taking a bath unless they were escorted by their parents. Even this was permitted only near the side walls, sources said.

Hundred of devotees thronged gurdwaras and temples to celebrate Darsh Amavas on Sunday. Some of the NGOs carried welfare activities also.

The members of the Maharishi Baal Sewa Gram distributed pitchers and hand fans among the women while sweet water stalls were put at many places.

In sector-3, a yajna was organised in the Shanidev temple on the occasion of Shani Amavasya. All the devotees who went there to offer prayers were also served with langar. 

Bathinda, May 24
Various government teachers in a meeting held here today termed the Punjab government’s education policy as an anti-education policy. Members of the SC-BC Teachers’ Union, the Science Teachers’ Association, the Government School Teachers’ Union and the Maths Teachers’ Union accused the state government of taking steps towards public-private participation that would leave the education available only to the rich.

Darshan Maur compared the state government with Taliban saying that just like Taliban depriving people of education and health, the education and health departments have the least facilities to offer and are the most handicapped departments in Punjab.

Rajesh Monga said government teachers got only 140 days to teach out of 365 days. The rest was utilised in seminars, non-teaching chores and responding to mails that had to be attended to on working days, he added.

Sources said the government declares holidays, which are not applicable to private schools, and government schools get closed and lose out on the teaching time. “When we hardly get time to teach, then how can our result be compared to that of the private schools. This is totally unfair,” a teacher said.

Teachers are kept busy with the Central government’s schemes, like mid-day meals, for which teachers have to skip their classes that hampers the time available for teaching.

“There are regular teams from the education department, Chandigarh, and even district teams that visit for checking. The members of these teams are the teachers, who were underperformers when they were teachers but with political links got themselves enrolled as members of the checking teams. How can they judge our performance? They harass and threaten us,” another teacher added.

The session in government schools start from April 1 and the full student strength starts only after April 15 because these students are those who work in fields and belonged to poor families.

Teachers said they wanted to uplift the declining education structure in the state and bring out bright students who exist but are not getting the right treatment at the hands of the government.

Others who attended the meeting were Lakshman Maluka, Sukhdev Mittal, Avtar Singh Romana, Avtar Singh, Buta Singh, Swaranjeet Singh, Jeet Singh, Satnam Singh, Rakesh Verma, Paramjeet, Ballore Mann, Ashwani Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Naib Singh, Sukhdev Singh and others.

Mansa, May 24
All the schools of Mansa district have been facing an acute shortage of science teachers and laboratories. As per details, nearly 40 per cent posts of science teachers are lying vacant while 70 per cent of the schools are running without science laboratories and adequate material.

Ashok Kumar Jindal from the Government Senior Secondary School for Girls, Sardoolgarh, said that many school students in rural areas are unable to opt for science stream as they do not have the proper facilities.

Another science teacher Darshan Sharma from the Government Senior Secondary School in Beer Hodlan said that out of the total 290 posts, 170 posts of science teachers are still lying vacant.

District project director of Sarb Siksha Abhyaan Darshan Singh Dhillon demanded that the teachers and laboratories should be made available to the students.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer (Secondary) Harbans Singh Sandhu said no qualified science teachers are there in the district and those who are, prefer to get transferred to their home district. 

Abohar, May 24
Even when the National Center for Integrated Pest Management had, through the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), sounded an alert on the status of mealy bug in extensively cotton growing districts of Punjab collected through surveillance teams, the state government and top brass in political arena turned a blind eye lamenting that the Lok Sabha elections were their top priority, sources said.

As per the available information, the PAU had in the month of March this year reportedly cautioned that cotton growing belt in Abohar and Khuyiansarwar blocks of this sub-division besides all the areas in Bathinda and Muktsar districts might come under severe attack from deadly pest mealy bug. Mild attack was also apprehended in the neighbouring Fazilka block while Faridkot and Mansa districts could also come under attack.

As per official sources, cotton production in 2007-08 was recorded at 21.50 bales but the attack by mealy bug slashed it to 16.90 lakh bales even when the white gold had been grown in 5.27 lakh hectare area in 2008-09.

During the current financial year, target for growing cotton in 5.50 lakh hectare has been fixed but the farmers looked more inclined to paddy as groundwater table had risen in the cotton belt.

Bhupinder Brar, a post- graduate farmer of village Daulatpura and Sukhdev Sandhu of village Kandhwala Hazarkhan feel that the farming community was not confident over the availability of canal water for cotton. So far, 80 per cent of cotton sowing has been completed.

The farmers are now being advised to destroy the wild growth that houses mealy bug around their fields. They want the government to make available branded quality insecticides of reputed companies at subsidised rates.

The government will also have to ensure that manufacturers and distributors do not exploit the farmers, said Sukhjit Brar of village Khuyiansarwar.

Interestingly, the campaign against mealy bug last year was funded by Mumbai-based Sir Ratan Tata Trust and most of the work got done by employing scouts of rural origin.

They were properly trained and most of them had succeeded in involving the village panchayats and youth clubs in uprooting grass on both sides of the roads and banks of sub-canals using tractor arranged by charity.

But the state government this time has not yet recovered from the poll 
hangover and is yet to plan any such exercise. 

Abohar, May 24
Empty ponds and soaring mercury are forcing black bucks and other protected species to migrate from some villages located on the Seetogunno road near here. Temperature was recorded at 46.5 degree Celsius here on Thursday.

While developing Asia's largest open wild life sanctuary in August 1975, the Central government had earmarked an area of 186.50 hectare spread over a cluster of 13 villages in Abohar sub-division.

A farmer aged about 53, wearing a white dhoti-kameez, who avoided to be identified as he came to the rescue of The Tribune team by offering a jug full of icy lemon water during a 90 minute stroll through dusty passages, feared that unchecked construction of houses on sandy heaps in the deserts neighbouring Raipura village, creation of kuchcha boundary walls around the fields and farmers' love for kennels might squeeze the wildlife sanctuary besides endangering life of the species. Stray dogs too had assaulted deer recently.

Krishan Chander of Sardarpura while pointing to poorly maintained empty pond said they had been constructed by the state government for black bucks and other species in Sardarpura, Rajanwali, Raipura, Seetogunno, Mehrana and Sukhchain villages that are normally dry.

The bucks and blue bulls can not afford risking their life by trying to consume water from the sub-canals.

Rameshwer of village Panniwala Mahla, who had arrived in village Dhaban Kokrian revealed that he had noticed a group of black bucks moving towards his village located near the Rajasthan border.

The total number of black bucks and blue bulls in the sanctuary is estimated at 3500 each. There are about 10,000 birds, most of them titars. Population of peacocks has recently registered an increase.

One Raja Ram Bishnoi resented that the forest authorities were not having weapons and vehicles for round-the-clock patrolling of the area. The sanctuary has only two check posts, which are not manned.

The wireless communication between the posts and the wildlife office is non-existent. Due to indifferent attitude of the state government, the Abohar wildlife sanctuary is yet to receive a Gypsy jeep, which was sanctioned by the Central government 10 years ago for patrolling.

No census of animals, in the sanctuary, has been carried out for the last ten years. Bucks were also noticed migrating to village Rampura Narainpura bordering Sangria tehsil of Rajasthan, a farmer informed.

Interestingly, Punjab forest minister Teekshan Sood while discussing the bottlenecks during his maiden visit to Abohar in July last year had diplomatically stated that efforts were "in the pipeline" to update facilities for the wildlife staff.

But enquiries indicated that only a tractor had been shifted from the Hari Ke Barrage to Abohar for transporting water to fill the small ponds but no budget for purchasing diesel was provided. The outlived water tanker gets emptied due to leakage before reaching the ponds. 

The government had not been able to dispose of the vehicles that lay abandoned here in the wildlife office for the past 12 years. The office has got one range officer, an inspector and seven guards but they are not provided diesel for using personal vehicles. The proposal to upgrade the veterinary dispensary in village Duttaranwali has also been gathering dust.

Not only are the guards armless but the government had reportedly deferred refunding of the arms which had been deposited due to the LS polls. Most of the licensees belong to the Bishnoi community who prevent hunters. The arms will remain in the police custody till the Jalalabad bypoll, sources said.