Bathinda, July 5
As finance minister Pranab Mukherjee presents the annual budget tomorrow, farmers and industrialists in the region have expressed a hope that the budget would bring in a congenial atmosphere with right policies for agriculture and industry to flourish.

Farmers are expecting subsidies on farm chemicals, fertilisers, insecticides and farm equipment such as tractors besides low interest on loans and insurance on crops.

On the other hand, industrialists seek the budget would provide them with relief in taxes and duties charged.

“We expect the subsidies that the government promises on fertilisers, insecticides and farm equipment would be made available,” said Jaskaran Singh, a farmer from Ghudda village.

The farmers also expect introduction of crop insurance this year so as to protect them from the loss they have to bear due to natural calamities.

“The insurance for the crops on nominal premium should be announced in this budget so as to provide indemnity against the loss due to natural calamities. More crops should be included under the natural calamity fund for the benefit of the farmers,” said Shingara Singh, district president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union.

Farmers also want provisions be made for grain storage system in the state. Despite being one of the major producers of food grains in the country, Punjab still lacks a proper storage system leading to huge losses each year.

The farmers have high hopes from the budget to be presented by the Congress, which won a huge mandate in May on rural support. The party had promised ‘inclusive growth’, making this budget more likely to be farm oriented than in the past.

On the industrial front, Suresh Bansal, member, Bathinda Industrial Growth Centre Association, is of the view that Punjab’s economy was deteriorating very fast, thanks to various dole outs.

He said that power tariff was hiked due to gross cross subsidisation. On the other hand, the state government on its own was levying heavy burden by way of electricity duty and octroi, Bansal added.

“In Punjab, electricity duty had been very nominal at 11 paisa per unit for decades. Situation demands that at least for the industry, the excise duty should be made notable. Similar relief was sought for octroi in the budget,” said Bansal.

Jatinder Sharma, another industrialist, said there were indications that a cess on VAT might be imposed, which would be another retrograde step.

“We urge the government to feel the nerve of the industry and provide them some relief from taxes,” added Sharma.

Bathinda, July 5
Could the craving to go Canada make a man crazier than the village Bandi resident, Kaur Singh? The man in an attempt to remove hurdles, killed his seven-month-old daughter and tried to kill his wife, who was against his wish to go abroad.

According to sources, Kaur Singh, a sales man at a fuel station in the village was passionately completing all formalities to go Canada while his wife, Sukhpreet Kaur, had been opposing his plan.

On the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, when the couple again had a quarrel over the issue, Kaur Singh chalked out a ‘dangerous’ plan.

After giving threat of committing suicide, he left the home at around midnight. In an attempt to prevent her husband from taking such an extreme step, Sukhpreet Kaur chased him carrying her seven-month old daughter, Sukhpreet told police, and added that when she reached near the canal distributary, two persons all of a sudden came in front of her. They snatched the baby girl from her hands and threw her in the running water. When she started crying, the persons, in the presence of Kaur Singh also pushed her in the distributary.

As the pressure of water was too high, the woman drifted into the canal and reached village Jassi Bagh Wali. Members of the village Panchayat and her paternal kin took the woman to police station.aConfirming the details, SHO Sangat Police Station, Sandeep Singh said, “After the incident, the girl went missing. She was today recovered dead from the Doomwali minor head. A case under the IPC has been registered against Kaur Singh. Efforts are on to arrest him.”

Bathinda, July 5
After seeing a large number of visitors and participants, the two-day ‘Education Fair’ concluded here today.

Educational institutions and consultants from Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Noida and Srinagar besides Bathinda had put up stalls at the fair. Students interacted with the counsellors to learn about courses that would suit their individual interests. Motivational lectures were also held for the students. Some institutes conducted personal interviews and group discussions for enrolment for 2009.

Jyotika, a student of Class XII, said, “Though I have taken up Arts, I am not very sure what to do next. The fair updated me on the institutes available and which course would provide what kind of career opportunities. I also learnt about the pay packages I could get. With so many new courses coming up, it’s a tough choice.”

“Seeing the current scenario of education in India, there seems to be a wide scope and immense opportunities for the students to explore new avenues abroad,” felt Ramesh Bhatnagar, a representative of the ICL Overseas, Panchkula. “But what they need is proper guidance,” he added.

Amit Yayavar, marketing officer, Satyam Career and Education Consultants, said the queries of the students pertained mostly to the career opportunities available or the courses they could pursue. He said that New Zealand was still the most preferred destination for those wanting to travel abroad. It was followed by the USA and Canada.

Yayavar further said the fair provided information on professional courses available with institutes in various streams. Although MBAs were still the most popular options, the Imperial Institute of Hotel Management, Chandigarh, and the School of Aeronautics, New Delhi, had their fair share of enquiries.

The National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities, Chennai, was the main attraction of the fair.

Gurmit Singh Dhaliwal, managing director, Baba Farid Institute of Higher Studies, Bathinda, was the chief guest on the concluding ceremony.

Paying obeisance at the Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, one of the five Takhts of Sikhs, is a must for every one who visits Malwa.

Lakhs of devotees across the world visit the sacred Takht located at Talwandi Sabo, some 30 kilometers southeast from the Bathinda city.

As per the Sikh history, the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh compiled the Sikh Scriptures, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, here in 1705 during his stay at the place which also known as Guru Ki Kashi.

The Takht was officially recognised as the fifth Takht of Sikhs in November 1966. Later, the Government of India declared it as the fifth Sikh Takht in April 1999 during tri-centennial celebrations of the formation of the Khalsa.

The political and religious functioning of the Takht is being governed by the SGPC. Presently, Balwant Singh Nandgarh is the Jathedar of the Takht Sahib.

Every year in the month of April on occasion of Baisakhi, devotees from every corner of the world, reach here to take a holy dip in the Sarovars.

A big fair which is organised to mark the occasion adds to the ambience. While eatery stalls, toy shops, swings draws attention of kids and commoners, political parities try to cash in on the presence of huge gathering and holds conferences to show their strength.

It may be mentioned that since a long time of its recognition, the town is still grappling even for basic civic amenities.

Moga, July 5
Moga police has busted a sex racket allegedly being operated from hotels and guest houses of the town and arrested five couples, besides, an owner and a manager of a guest house while another owner of a hotel managed to flee away.

Police sources revealed that the first raid was conducted at hotel Heaven View, situated on the Ludhiana road from where four couples were arrested in a 'compromising' position.

Those arrested by the police have been identified as Gurpreet Singh and Pindu both residents of Dhurkot village, Avtar Singh resident of Moga, Sukhchain Singh resident of Sidhwan Bet (Ludhiana). Police also arrested four women, two of them are residents of Jalandhar, while one is of Gurgaon and another is a resident of Sidhwan Bet. The owner of this hotel Kuldip Singh, a retired police head-constable, has also been booked by the police along with these couples under sections 3, 4 and 4 of the Immoral Trafficking Act. However, he was not be arrested by the police when the news report was last filed.

In another raid, the police had arrested a couple in a compromising position along with owner and manager of Friends Guest House situated on the Gill road in the town.

Those arrested persons had been identified as Amarjit Singh of Jogewala village, a woman, Raju Sidora (owner) and Kuldip Singh (manager) of the guest house.

While admitting that sex rackets were being run from hotels and guest houses of the town for quite some time, Ram Singh SHO of the police station (south) said that there was a lot of political pressure on him not to register an FIR in this case but he had booked all the four persons under sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Act in consultation with senior officials. 

Abohar, July 5
Hundreds of passengers were stranded as buses remained off the road following fresh incidents of violence in the municipal general bus stand here on Sunday. Ironically, the trains too were not available as the railways had suspended some trains to carry construction work at bridge number 95/1 on the Abohar-Malout section.

As per information, the rehriwalas reassembled today and allegedly started hitting the buses, again in the presence of the police, using empty soda water bottles that they had stacked to exchange with the distributors.

This forced the transport workers to run but they later went on strike. The jam was lifted after two and half an hour following a compromise that was reportedly brokered with the mediation of state government officials. However, its details were not disclosed.

Meanwhile, some of the transport workers while interacting with the media alleged that the police was under pressure from political leaders to not initiate any action against the rehriwalas as their leaders hold posts in the organisational set up of the ruling parties.

Interestingly, municipal council staff was yesterday quoted confessing that the rehriwalas had not got license to stay permanently on the passenger shed that too close to the booking windows. In fact the council had in its advertisement had clarified that booths for selling fruits and eatables will be auctioned for the current financial year. But the successful bidders had fixed rehris also in addition to the booths and allegedly indulged in unfair trade practices, the transport workers pointed out.

However the council did not remove rehris today even when none turned up to display eatables on these. An aged passenger was heard complaining that he too was cheated by a rehriwala.

The latter did not return the balance as the customer had given him Rs 1000 Indian currency note. Some passengers from Rajasthan said they were on way to Ludhiana to attend the last rites of a relative but stranded here. They were short of money to hire a taxi. 

Moga, July 5
Set up with the aim of helping the farming community and cooperative societies of the rural areas, the Central Cooperative Bank in Moga is facing acute shortage of staff resulting in creating an extra burden on the existing staff, adversely affecting the normal functioning of various branches in the rural areas.

In some branches, there are no regular managers, while other branches do not have sanctioned clerical staff and peons.

As per the details available with The Tribune, out of the total of 352 sanctioned posts, 214 posts are lying vacant in the district. In the year 1998-1999, the bank had 183 employees working in 35 branches. In the year 2009, the number of branches has increased to 47 but the manpower has decreased to 138 employees.

Insiders in the bank revealed that the needs of the farmers and agriculture cooperative societies were rarely addressed as per the expectations of the customers because some branches of the cooperative bank have just one person performing the duties of a peon, clerk, accountant, cashier and also the manager.

Kewal Singh Gill, general secretary of the Central Cooperative Bank Employees Union, Moga while talking to The Tribune, revealed that five posts of senior manager were lying vacant against 6 sanctioned posts and 14 posts of managers were lying vacant against 22 posts.

Besides, 108 posts of clerks and 54 posts of peons are lying vacant in the bank for the past many years in addition to the shortage many other posts of stenos, accountants and assistant managers.

Though the shortage of staff has not put any adverse effect on achieving the targets, yet senior officials of the bank say that by filling the posts in accordance with the sanctioned staff strength, the rural branches of the cooperative bank could perform much better than what was being delivered presently by its staff members.

Even as the net profit of this bank in the district has increased from Rs 3.79 crore to Rs 11.05 crore during the past one decade but no one has ever bothered to fill up the huge number of posts lying vacant for the past many years.

The Employees Union has alleged that the issue has been discussed with the board of directors, registrar of the cooperative societies, managing director of the cooperative bank and also with cooperative minister for filling up the vacant posts number of times during the past 11 years.

But nobody has taken it seriously. “The employees are working under stress and feeling mentally sick in violation the labour laws and human rights,” alleged an employee of the bank. 

Moga, July 5
Rates of bricks have increased by about 20 per cent in the Moga district during the past few weeks. Even as the district administration has fixed the rates of bricks at Rs 2,460 per 1000 bricks inclusive of all taxes but these days the brick-kiln owners are selling bricks at Rs 3,000 to 3,300 per 1,000 bricks.

The district magistrate Satwant Singh Johal held a meeting with the brick-kiln owners a couple of weeks back and fixed the rates at Rs 2,460 per 1,000 bricks in consultation with them.

Even then, the brick kiln owners were not selling the bricks at the rates fixed by the administration.

It was learnt that they had formed a 'syndicate' with a strong political backing from the leaders of the ruling SAD-BJP parties and were unwilling to sell bricks at the rates fixed by the district administration.

Defending the steep hike in prices of bricks, a brick-kiln owner told The Tribune that the price of coal was Rs 6,000 per tonne in the year 2008, which has gone up to Rs 11,000 per tonne putting an extra burden at the cost of production.

Similarly, there was an acute shortage of labour this year unlike the previous years because the migration of labours has reduced from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh after the successful launch of the NREGA scheme in those states, he added.

However, there was a great resentment prevailing among the local people, who were planning to start the construction work in their houses. "The district administration has failed to protect the consumer rights of the people," alleged Chaman Lal Sharma, president of the Consumers' Association.

Meanwhile, there were also reports that the brick-kiln owners in a collective decision had reserved huge stocks of bricks, keeping in view the onset of monsoons because most of the brick-kiln owners stop manufacturing bricks during this part of the year.

Sources close to some brick kiln owners said that they may further increase the prices of bricks in the coming few days from Rs 200 to Rs 500 per 1,000 bricks, keeping in view the hike in prices of petrol and diesel, which has, in turn, increased the cost of transportation. 

Mansa, July 5
To control the seasonal diseases such as malaria, dengue and jaundice, the district health department has asked all the executive officers of the Municipal Councils to maintain cleaning and ensuring safe drinking water to people.

The district health officer Rupinder Kumar Singla said that civil surgeon had released letters to all executive officers in this regard.

He admitted that at times sewerage water mixes with drinking water and creates diseases. So, it was necessary to ensure proper disposal of sewerage water and proper supply of safe drinking water, he added. Health department would organise camps to make people aware about the diseases at different places in the entire district. — OC

Abohar, July 5
The Punjab State Wild Life Advisory Board has dropped the idea of issuing licenses to kill blue bulls in the state, sources said.

The state government during the period 1992-97 had succumbed to pressures from various quarters for authorising political activists to kill blue bulls lamenting that the animals were damaging crops, besides, causing road mishaps during the night hours when they roam freely.

Sources in the Akhil Bhartiya Jeev Raksha Bishnoi Sabha here said its representatives had during a recent meeting of the board strongly opposed reviving of the old policy asserting that the Bishnoi community, having 25,000 members in Abohar sub-division alone, will resist killings tooth and nail since the community was committed to save green trees and species.

The board has also agreed to bring villages Gumjal, Panniwala Mahla and Haripura within the ambit of Community Reserve Area (CRA). Since the villages are not geographically connected with other 13 villages of Abohar sub-division, which form part of Asia's largest open wild life sanctuary, the only option left was to declare these as CRA.

Notably, The Tribune had last month reported that black bucks and blue bulls were migrating to village Gumjal and Panniwala located near the inter-state border as the farmers in the traditional sanctuary area near Abohar had started construction of houses on sandy heaps in addition to covering their farm houses by kuchcha boundary walls.

This interfered with free movement of bucks and blue bulls. Stray dog menace too was fatal for the species.

Later, the sarpanches of three villages had also urged the state government to respect sentiments of the residents by declaring these CRA. Now, there will be no fish farming in these villages. Hunting will be completely banned.

Mansa, July 5
Area under the sowing of cotton and production of the crop has been declining in Punjab. According to sources in the agricultural officials, area under the cotton sowing during 2006-07 was 6.14 lakh hectare while it reduced up to 6.04 lakh hectare in 2007-08 The area under crop further declined to 5.27 lakh hectare during 2008-09, while during the current year, area under the crop was estimated to be 5.50 lakh hectare.

The cotton production had also gone down from 27.09 lakh bales in 2006-07 to 23.55 lakh bales in 2007-08 and to 22.85 lakh bales in 2008-09.

However, the agriculture department is expecting more production this year and fixed the target of 23.14 lakh bales because of suitable environmental conditions during the current seasons.

Farmers in the district are giving government apathy as the major reason for continuous decrease in the area of cotton sowing and production of the crop.

Leaders of the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan) Ram Singh Bhainibagha, Rajinder Singh Babby and Jasbir Singh Sema blamed the government for not providing reasonable prices to the cotton growers and non-procurement of the crop on time. They demanded the best quality seeds and pesticides in addition to reasonable price at the fixed time. They pointed out that mealy bug attack on the crop had discouraged the farmers towards the cotton crop.

Farmers leaders demanded the government to take effective steps to avoid any harassment of farmers in the markets at the time of cotton procurement. 

Abohar, July 5
Even when the CM Parkash Singh Badal during frequent visits to the Jalalabad West segment was quoted having distributed about Rs 92 crore in less than a month reportedly to ensure victory of his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in the bypoll to be held next month, the electorates of about 22 villages of Arniwala belt still feel dismayed as they had not got even a penny.

Explaining the agony of the electorates, a progressive farmer and poet Sukhdev Singh Sandhu from village Kandhwala Hazarkhan revealed today that these villages earlier made part of the Balluana (reserve) segment but had now been transferred to the Jalalabad constituency due to delimitation.

However, Sandhu said the bypolls was being held as per old boundaries so that the CM or his aides did not plan a visit here that otherwise deserved upgradation as sub-division. — OC