Amritsar, July 30
Farmers from across the state led by the Kirti Kisan Union (KKU) today held dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office for not scrapping the MoU signed between Awan panchayat and Azure Power Punjab Private Limited.

Criticising the state government and the district administration Nirbhai Singh Dhudike, state president of the union said the government was taking away the panchayat land from farmers and allotting it to companies, depriving them of source of livelihood. He threatened direct action against the company if the MoU was not cancelled.

Farmers have been protesting against the construction of solar power project on the panchayat land allegedly offered to the company without following procedure. They alleged Azure Power Punjab Private had started construction on the said land despite the court deciding the case in favour of the farmers cultivating the land for 30 to 35 years.

Dhudike urged the government to reserve the panchayat land for the poor farmers .

Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu said the administration and the company had earlier reached compromise to provide compensation to the farmers but it later backed out. He said they were trying to resolve the issue .

Meanwhile the Kisan Sangharsh Committee gheraod the office of the Chief Engineer, Border Range and the Circuit house in protest against the privatisation of the Punjab State Electricty Board.

State president of the KSC Satnam Singh Pannu criticised Parkash Singh Badal for betraying the farmers, employees and the labourers by unbundling the board to oblige the multinationals .

SANGRUR: A large number of activists and members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union staged a dharna for about four hours at the deputy commissioner’s office and held a rally here to press the govt for their demands.

The protesters were addressed among others by state president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Joginder Singh Ugrahan, district convener of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union Balwinder Singh Jhaloor, district president of the BKU (Ugrahan) Janak Singh Bhutal, president of Lehra block of the BKU (Ugrahan) Balbir Singh Jhaloor, Darbara Singh Chhajla, Jaswant Singh Tolawal and Chamkaur Singh.

Meanwhile, farmers also held a dharna in Bathinda.

Chandigarh, July 30
The Australian government has reiterated to protect interests of Indian students living there, maintaining the police there had checked attacks on Indian students.

The Australian government is also taking steps to safeguard interests of the Indian students affected by the closure of Sterling College in Sydney.

“Australia is cracking down on the perpetrators of scams and frauds in the education sector. We take allegations of fraud in the student visa and permanent residence cases very seriously. Major operation is under way in relation to alleged fraudulent references. Under Australia’s criminal and migration legislation, there are serious penalties for the offence of forgery and false papers,” a communication by the High Commission in New Delhi said.

Some Australian newspapers, including the Age and the Australian, have come out with startling revelations. A report indicated international students, especially Indian students, were used virtually used as slaves and made to work for 900 hours to 1,200 hours as part of their course internships without being paid.

The reports also highlight t poor living conditions and how the institutions were misusing international students for business, especially hotel and restaurants, hair dressing and other such service industries. One report even suggested major beneficiary of the exploitation of international students, especially Indian students, have been Indian restaurants which made the interns work sans pay on the pretext of completing documents for grant of permanent residency.

In another case, the report indicated how some Indian girl students were made to work in a hair salon for eight or 10 hours a day without being paid.as part of internship. Instead, the students were required to make ecurity deposits so that gadgets used by them during their internship do not get damaged.

“ I am convinced that we are on the right track,” says Australian High Commission John McCarthy. “These are complex problems but top level of the Australian government is focused on protecting the interests of international students.”

High Commission sources maintain Sterling College in Sydney had 604 enrolments from amongst Indian students out of 844 students. The college ceased operations from July 28 because of financial problems.

Students were being distributed evenly across courses in hospitality, community welfare and hairdressing. Sterling College offered courses in information technology, English language, business, financial services, hospitality, commercial cookery and industry certification. The Australian government has already initiated mandatory protections in the case of this college.

The students affected by the closure of the college could even claim refund of the fee under the law governing international education.

Amritsar, July 30
The non -resident Indians (NRIs) are unhappy with the the state government not releasing its share of 75 per cent for the setting up of hospital in Chabba village.

The Punjab government, to make NRIs invest in the state, had promised to fund 75 per cent of projects and facilities of hospitals and educational institutes in the state by modifying the plan scheme NRI 2.35 at the NRI convention in 2008. Earlier, the government used to give 50 per cent of project’s outlay .

NRI Anup Singh Jubbal, promoter of Canadian Eyesight Global (CEG), which is setting up an eye hospital in Chabba in Amritsar, said the government should tell whether funds would be made available or not so that we could plan accordingly.

Jubbal said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at NRI convention in Ludhiana and Jalandhar in January 2008 had promised to provide funds in 75:25 ratio (75 per cent by the government) for projects and other social projects like hospitals, educational institutes. He said their organisation had been taking up the issue (of hospital) with the state government and the district administration for two years but nothing had come out of it.

He was here to donate a mobile van to Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Mata Sulakhani Eye Hospital, Chabba, Amritsar being set up by the CEG. The hospital will provide free cataract surgery and eye treatment to poor persons of rural areas. He said the mobile van would be utilised for eye screening of people of rural areas of the city and other parts of the state.

Jubbal, president and CEO, CEG, said since 1989 48,000 cataract surgeries were performed free of charge and 1,00,000 treated in rural areas of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh , Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Jalandhar, July 30
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up with him the issues related to the state.

Official sources said Badal would fly to Delhi on August 2 and would meet the Prime Minister the next day, in case the appointment was confirmed.

Punjab has been awaiting the coal linkage for the Gidderbaha thermal plant, whihc is to be approved by the Centre. Besides, there are several issues related to the agriculture on which the Punjab differ from the union government. Punjab wants the definition of the drought be changed and the relief to the states from the calamity fund be linked to the percentage of deficiency in rain in the state. As Punjab has a large network of tubewells, farmers in the state have to save their crops in a drought by running the tubewells on diesel generator sets. In fact, in Punjab, farmers take more yield of paddy during the drought years.

Punjab wants that the farmers in the state be given full subsidy on diesel for nursing paddy crop. However, the union government has offered only 50 per cent subsidy on the diesel to be used by farmers to irrigate paddy crop.

The sources said the Punjab government wanted Rs 20 per litre subsidy for burning 10 litre of diesel per acre per turn. Such subsidy should be given to irrigate the paddy four times till its maturing in September-end. The Punjab government’s argument was that almost 95 per cent of paddy produced in the state was given to the central pool and it ensured food security for the country. The issue of direct subsidy on fertiliser will also be discuss it with the Prime Minister.

Punjab wants a drought allowance of Rs 100 per quintal on paddy as farmers had made additional investments on diesel, etc, to save their crop.

Barnala, July 30
Criticising Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family for ignoring “taksali” (genuine) Akalis, Akali workers, leaders and supporters of the Barnala family (Surjit Singh Barnala, Governor, Tamil Nadu) today urged Barnala to quit as Governor to join active politics and lead Akali workers of the state.

Surjit Kaur Barnala, wife of Surjit Singh Barnala, said she would also ask Barnala Sahib to quit as Governor of Tamil Nadu to honour sentiments of the workers.

Akali supporters of Barnala family today attended the gathering but former Dhuri MLA and expelled SAD leader Gaganjit Singh Barnala (son of Barnala) was absent at the workers’ gathering, convened by his mother at the house of Barnala family here in connection with the revival of the SAD (Longowal). On the bsence of Gaganjit from the gathering, Bibi Barnala said he was out of station and would come by August 3 or 4 .

Two resolutions were also adopted by the gathering. Through first resolution, it demanded girdawari to assess the damage to crops due to recent rain for providing compensation to the farmers while by another resolution Surjit Kaur Barnala was urged to head the SAD (Longowal).

Bibi Barnala said in the SAD (Longowal), women wing, youth wing, farmers ‘ wing etc would be constituted. She also said the SAD (Longowal) would make efforts to get the SGPC freed from the control of Parkash Singh Badal. She also announced formal announcement, regarding the SAD (Longowal, would be made on August 20 on the death anniversary of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal at Longowal.

Former Punjab Minister Baldev Singh Mann said Parkash Singh Badal had done “injustice” to the followers of Sant Longowal, like him. He said they would never compromise with Badal. He also said the SAD (Longowal) would contest SGPC elections.

Karamjit Singh Sunam, Gurjant Singh Sidhu, Mohinder Kaur, Amandeep Singh Verka from Amritsar and former chairman of Barnala Improvement Trust Rupinder Singh Sandh were among the speakers . 

Zirakpur, July 30
Claiming that the outcome of the byelections at Banur, Jalalabad and Kahnuwan would reveal the people’s verdict in favour of the SAD, part supremo Sukhbir Badal said the winning margins would be more than the general elections.

“Instead of levelling allegations of money and gifts being distributed to the voters in Bathinda and now in Jalabada, the Congress should start respecting the people’s verdict,” said a visibly confident junior Badal while addressing a press conference at the residence of Zirakpur MC president NK Sharma.

On being asked about the statement by Capt Amarinder Singh that the state government due to its poor financial health was not buying power from outside, Sukhbir sarcastically said the former Chief Minister did not know the practicality of the issue and was shooting through the hat. “Capt Amarinder Singh was mentally upset,” added the junior Badal.

He flayed the Central government and the newly elected Congress MPs for doing nothing for the state which is in a drought-like situation.

Playing the Centre-state issue, he said no positive word about the debt-ridden farmers of Punjab, on the pattern of Maharashtra, and on the proposed Amritsar-Ludhiana rail corridor had been heard. Only 40 mw of the 100 mw allocation by the Centre was available as the sources of the allocation were not fully functional. Later addressing rallies at Zirakpur and Dera Bassi in support of the party candidate from Banur Jasjit Singh Bunny, he played the sympathy card of the former Cooperation Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, to the hilt while seeking votes .

He attributed the development of the area to the Akai stalwart. He said the constituency being situated on expressway to Delhi has the clear advantage of becoming the business hub like the nation capital region.

Speaking on the occasion, Jasjit Singh Bunny stressed that he would ensure completion of projected conceived by the late leader for the area. 

Jalandhar, July 30
PepsiCo India, food and beverage company, has spread wings in Uttar Pradesh and covered 300 acres in Bijnaur and Nazibabad this year under direct seeding for paddy cultivation.

On the success of direct seeding of paddy cultivation at Jallowal village near here, Dr Susheel Sankhyan, General Manager (Agriculture), claimed the company targeted to cover 25,000 acres under direct seeding by 2012. The methodology is being used under its contract farming programme launched in Punjab in 2004.

He claimed the area covered under this programme had gone up to 6,000 acres from 1,000 acres.

The technique has saved water and lowered production cost, besides certain environmental benefits like reduction in emission of greenhouse gases like methane. This also improves soil porosity and helps increase yield.

Dr Sankhyan claims the initiative saves 30 per cent (900 KL per acre) of water in direct seeded fields and helps reduce farmers’ cultivation costs by Rs 1,500 per acre.

The company has developed direct seeding machine at its (Research and Development) farms at Jallowal village for sowing seeds uniformly at specified gap and at uniform depth. Using the seeder, direct seeding was carried out on 20 acres by roping in 12 farmers under the contract farming in 2004. The area under the direct seeding was increased to 100 acres in 2007 and 1,000 acres in 2008. The company has carried out direct seeding in 6,000 acres benefiting 1,500 farmers this year.

Sukhjit Singh, Mohinder Singh and Pragat Singh, farmers who opted for direct seeding technique for paddy claimed having saved on labour, electricity and diesel cost.

Singhara Singh, a Kisan Union leader in Bathinda, refuted claims of the company saying the paddy sown with this technique required more water while the yield was less compared to the paddy transplanted manually. 

Ludhiana, July 30
Only 15 per cent of youths could clear first round of physical fitness tests at the Army’s recruitment rally here yesterday .

Those who cleared the test were mostly from villages .

Response of the youths to the rally was overwhelming, but many of them could not complete four rounds of 400metres each.

“I came with hope but could not complete the four rounds. I arranged money to reach here and stayed at the railway station, but could not achieve anything,’’ said Jaswinder Singh (20) ITI student from Gobindgarh village in Raikot. His friend Vikramjit Singh also could not go beyond the second round.

Random survey of those who cleared the tests, revealed many villagers were seen entering the second, third and fourth round of tests after clearing the first.

Col Saji Abraham, Director, Army Recruitment, said not more than 15 participants were able to clear the test out of 100. “There are only a few who crossed the four rounds energetically,’’ said Colonel Abraham.

Chandigarh, July 30
The chief electoral officer has asked all political leaders and party workers camping in the area of three Assembly segments of Banur, Kahnuwan and Jalalabad, not belonging to these constituencies, to leave. The three Assembly segments will go to polls on August 3.

The Election Commission guidelines require all functionaries, party workers, procession functionaries, campaign managers etc, from outside and not voters in the constituency to leave the constituency 48 hours before the polling , when the campaigning comes to an end.

The EC has also prohibited public meetings two days before the polling . Convening, holding or attending, joining or addressing any public meeting or procession in connection with election; or displaying to public regarding election matter by means of television or other similar apparatus; or propagating election matter to the public by holding, or by arranging entertainment programme to attract members of the public thereto is prohibited.

The EC has told no liquor shop, hotel, restaurant, club and establishment, serving liquor shall be permitted to sell or serve liquor.

The EC has circulated names and phone numbers of returning officers so that violations can be pointed out.

Mansa, July 30
A day after followers of Dera Sacha Sauda went on the rampage in Mansa, the police booked around 800 followers, as part of unidentified mob. However, no one could be arrested and the police was urging mediapersons to provide video footages to identify the accused.

The Sadar police got four-day police remand of three suspects in the killing dera follower Lily Kumar of Alampur Mandra village.

Meanwhile, dera followers cremated Amrit Lal, another follower, who was shot dead by unidentified persons on Wednesday, at his native village Jakhal in Haryana. The police has booked unidentified miscreants in the case.

Though normalcy returned in Mansa and all markets opened today, the general pace of activity was slow. Police personnel were deployed at various places in the city and in adjoining areas. Extra force was called from Bathinda, Mansa and Faridkot districts.

A board of doctors conducted a postmortem examination of Amrit Lal’s body at the Civil Hospital, Mansa, on Wednesday evening. The bullet lead recovered from the body was reportedly smaller than the one police jawans carry.

Ram Singh and Vikarmjeet Singh, members of the 25-member state administrative committee of the dera said: “We are waiting for the police to come up with the factual results. The matter can be settled only if the all culprits responsible for killing of the two dera followers are put behind bars.”

SSP Manminder Singh, who is a part of the special investigation team constituted by the Chief Minister for this case, said: “We are doing our best to nab all the culprits.”