Amritsar, August 14
In a major fallout in the sensational fake currency racket, an ASI of General Railway Police (GRP), Balwinder Singh, posted at Attari railway station, was today arrested in connection with the seizure of more than Rs 4.5 lakh of counterfeit Indian currency from ISI agent Salvinder Kaur.

Salvinder, who was nabbed by the Chandigarh police from Amritsar on August 2, had named Balwinder Singh during interrogation and revealed that the cop helped her in getting a clean chit from the Customs authorities.

An inquiry was conducted by the DSP and GRP SHO in this regard who found him guilty. A case under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 420 of the IPC was registered against him at GRP police station at Jalandhar.

Confirming this, GRP SP Shamsher Jang Bahadar Sharma said the investigations were being conducted to identify the Customs officials who gave clearance to Salvinder, who smuggled Rs 4.58 lakh of fake currency into India and then smuggle to various parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. He said the role of other policemen who were on duty at that time was also being looked into. These policemen have been transferred.

He said the involvement of certain Customs officials could not be ruled out, as without their involvement it would not have been possible to smuggle the fake currency. The intelligence and security sources were keeping a close look at customs and immigration authorities as many questions were raised after it came to light that Salvinder had gone to Pakistan 17 times through various religious jathas.

Amritsar, August 14
The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has adopted the nobel project ‘Nanhi Chhaan’ with a new slogan “Rukh lagao kukh bachao” (plant trees and save womb).

SGPC President Avtar Singh also distributed the saplings of various varieties to the devotees in the SGPC complex.

Addressing the mediapersons, Avtar Singh said they would distribute about 2 lakh saplings on the occasion of Sankranti from various takhts, including Anandpur Sahib, Damdama Sahib and Talwandi Saboo. He said this initiative had been taken to create awareness among the masses on environment and female foeticide.

It may be mention here that earlier the Punjab Government along with SGPC had collaborated with a leading corporate house Ranbaxy for a novel project 'Nanhi Chhaan', (small plant) wherein saplings were gifted to women devotees visiting the Golden Temple. The project was launched from the precincts of the Galliara of Harmandir Sahib by Harsimrat Badal, wife of SAD President Sukhbir Badal.

The SGPC President said saplings were distributed to the visitors at Darbar Sahib by way of "Buta Parsad" to plant and to welcome the newly born daughters in their households as well as the newly entrant daughter-in-laws. He said the SGPC would launch a scheme to plant saplings in SGPC-run schools and colleges in the state for giving more green shade to the state.

Amritsar, August 14
The district grievances committee, which was constituted last year, will likely hold its first meeting next month. Several members of the 21-member grievances committee, preferring anonymity, said the new grievances committee was formed only last year after the SAD-BJP government came into being in 2007 with a promise that they were not here to govern but to serve the people. The committee was formed under the chairmanship of Manoranjan Kalia, senior BJP cabinet minister.

They said the government seemed not to give any importance to the committee where people could bring out their grievances and seek government’s attention for redressal. The scant regard to the committee spoke volumes of the seriousness of the government to deliver on governance and meet the aspirations of the masses.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu said it took more than one year to constitute the committee after the formation of the SAD-BJP government in the state and now it was more than one and a half year that the committee had decided to hold its first inaugural meeting on September 4. He said the agenda for the meeting had already been dispatched to the members and hoped that the meeting would be held on schedule.

He said earlier the meeting was postponed twice due to various reasons and now the minister had given his consent to hold the meeting.

According to sources, a large number of grievances had been awaiting to be redressed.

Amritsar, August 14
Much to the relief of speechless dogs and animal rights activists, doctors have developed a least-painful Minimally Invasive Vas Occulsion Technique (MIVOT) to sterilise male dogs.

Felicitated and supported by the district administration, the MIVOT was dedicated to the nation on the eve of Independence Day and would be performed on 70 per cent of about 20,000 male dogs in the district in the next six months.

The protests over cruelty associated with the present method of sterilisation on dogs would be a passé. The population of dogs has risen sharply after their impounding and euthanising were replaced by animal birth control (ABC) in 1998 following protests by the animal welfare activists.

The study was conducted in Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, and Veterinary Hospital Amritsar.

The latest technique was developed by principal investigators Prof R.C.M. Kaza, Department of Surgery, Maulana Azad Medical College, Dr Baljit Kaur, State NSV Trainer Punjab, and co-investigators Dr Simrat Sagar Singh and Dr N.S Saini, both from GADVASU, Ludhiana.

Proficient in painless vasectomy in men without a formal cut and stitches, Prof Kaza said no longer dogs would be subjected to traumatic surgery for sterilisation.

He credited the dream team, including Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu, State NSV Trainer Dr Baljit Kaur, Dean GADVASU S.S. Singh, HoD Surgery GADVASU N.S. Saini.

Elaborating the MIVOT in male, he said it did not spill blood, caused very little discomfort, practically required no post operative care and was cost effective as well.

Now it is for the administrations, the Animal Husbandry Department and the veterinary surgeons to make it work.

The Deputy Commissioner was the spirit behind the developing of new painless surgical technique as he gathered experts from diverse fields to develop it.

Pannu said Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme launched by the government has not had desired results because of it being complicated, time consuming and expensive. He said after taking over as DC, the menace of stray dogs was brought to his notice. He informed that there were about 40,000 stray dogs in the district and many incidents of dog biting and mauling of children were reported.

Pannu discussed the menace of stray dogs with the officials of the Animal Husbandry Department and Civil Surgeon office. It paved way for a meeting with the doctors dealing with NSV sterilisation of human male and the Gonadectomy sterilisation of dogs to discuss the finer nuances of the project.

After training about 100 veterinary doctors of Amritsar and Tarn Taran, the campaign would be launched after a month.

Amritsar, August 14
Producing biodiesel at a scale to satisfy the demand level currently served by conventional fuels and the high cost associated with its production were the main obstacles in its production.

This was revealed by Dr Manjinder Singh, Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne (Australia), while delivering a keynote lecture on biodiesel organised by the Department of Biotechnology, DAV College, here under the Star College Programme.

Dr Singh said biodiesel was a clean-burning energy source that could be produced from vegetable oils or animal fats and was environment friendly, extremely advantageous ccompared to petroleum-based fuel, besides being biodegradable. He said while a number of bio-feed stocks were currently being tried for biodiesel production, algae had emerged as one of the most promising sources owing to their non-food nature, capability to grow on waste land with sea water and highest oil yield per acre. Additional advantages included their higher photosynthetic efficiency, higher biomass production and faster growth than agriculture crops. It had been estimated that algae fuel could produce up to 30 times more energy per acre than other land crops that were currently being researched for biodiesel production.

Earlier, Vice-Principal Suresh Sharma welcomed Dr Singh and advocated the importance of alternative sources of fuel in view of the depleting oil reserves the world-over.

He emphasised that developing technology for using waste biomass to produce energy could reduce the use of fossil fuels which, in turn, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. 

• Pesticides and fertilisers are turning crops into poison.

• Surface water is turning into untreated municipal waste.
• Groundwater is depleting fast. 

Amritsar, August 14
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is working towards adopting an aqua code for all industries, besides collaborating with the state governments in streamlining and setting up water institutes for the future.

This was revealed by Gunbir Singh, Chairman, Punjab unit of the CII, during a training workshop organised by the CII on water management with special focus on water treatment, rainwater harvesting and zero water discharge. The workshop was conducted by a national team from the CII which had as its members Sohrabji Godrej, Green Business Centre, Hyderabad, and engineer consultants from the CII - water institute of Rajasthan.

Participants included architects, engineers, industrialists, students and representatives from academia, Municipal Corporation, Improvement Trust and Pollution Control Board, etc.

Gunbir said food that was grown had become poisonous due to the presence of pesticides and fertilisers, surface water had turned into untreated municipal waste and pollutants and groundwater was depleting swiftly.

He said the Hudiara drain was a standing example of the mess in which the people were living. He said a recent survey by the WWF, Guru Nanak Dev University and the UNDP had found evidence of eye and skin ailments, endocrine disruptions, cancer and congenital defects in the region caused by these evils.

He said water was a critical resource for the economic development and livelihood in India. With 4 per cent of the world’s water resources and 16 per cent of its population, India would be hard pressed to meet the water requirement of its various growing sectors like agriculture, industry, domestic and others.

C. Sripat, CII counsellor on water and energy, gave extensive presentations on the water situation in the country, systems of water sustainability, water cleansing technologies, the phenomenon of zero discharge and rainwater harvesting.