Chandigarh, August 21
The Punjab cabinet is all set to scrap the agreement with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail signed in August, 2006, with the then Congress government. A memorandum prepared by the Agriculture Department will be brought before the cabinet at its meeting scheduled for tomorrow. The Punjab government believes there is no purpose in pursuing the agreement as the company had failed to make any investment in Punjab so far.

As per the agreement, Reliance was to make an initial investment of Rs 500 crore, which was to be taken up to Rs 3,000 crore later. Reliance has committed to setting up infrastructure, cold storage, logistics and signing agreements with farmers for agricultural and retail projects. In lieu, the government had agreed to give about 1,100 acres to Reliance on concessional rates for this “farm-to-fork project”.

If the proposal of the Punjab Agriculture Department is approved by the cabinet, it will mean cancellation of 480 acres of panchayati land on 23 locations across Punjab, 450 acres across six industrial areas and a chunk of 150 acres at the Laddowal farm near Ludhiana, allotted to RIL on concessional rates.

The cabinet is also proposing to bring in a resolution criticising the union government for “ignoring the interest of farmers” by announcing what it calls “inadequate” support price for paddy. Besides, sources said the cabinet was likely to discuss the issue of power reforms. Punjab has been under tremendous pressure to unbundled the PSEB.

Other important decisions expected to be taken include transfer of land for IIT at Ropar and approval for recruitment to raise two new companies of the Punjab police. The issue of recruitment of 2,600 men and 500 women constables is also likely to be discussed.

Also, another important issue that may come up is the strained relationship between the SAD and the BJP. 

Malerkotla, August 21
A special investigation team from Amritsar today raided the house and shop of alleged Pakistan’s ISI spy Sabir Bakshi at Malerkotla. However, the team did not disclose anything to mediapersons about the findings of the raid.

The special investigation team reportedly took in possession various documents, including maps from the shop, M/s Bakshi Badges House (regd), on the Diwan Khana road here. Besides, a diary and a suitcase containing documents was seized from his residence. The raid lasted over about three hours. The team also brought with it Bakshi, whose face was covered with a cloth.

The team also questioned Bakshi’s relatives, including his wife Anima and daughter Nahida, at his residence situated at Channa Mohalla, Sunami Gate.

Bakshi was held on the charge of spying in Amritsar yesterday. He is a supplier of embroidery badges and flags of different units of the Indian Army, Navy and the Air force.

Moga, August 21
Problems seem not to be ending for the Indian-born Canadian citizen Jagdev Singh facing charges of murdering the father of Punjab DGP and getting Canadian citizenship by fraudulent means.

The police has registered another criminal case under Sections 7, 13(2) and 88, Prevention of Corruption Act,1988, against NRI Jagdev, policemen Jaswinder Singh, Ranjit Singh and Gurdial Singh, retired policeman 
Hakam Singh and local travel agent Bittu.

The FIR has been lodged at the city police station on a complaint of DSP (City) Bhupinder Singh who has stated that when he was in his office on Thursday, an informer told him that Jagdev in 2004 had approached a local travel agent Bittu and policeman Hakam, then posted in the state intelligence. Both of them colluded with policemen Jaswinder Singh, Ranjit Singh and Gurdial Singh, then posted in the security branch (passport wing) of the SSP office, to get the police clearance certificate for Jagdev to get Canadian citizenship. They were given huge amounts as bribe.

The DSP has stated the original official records were destroyed by these policemen. Since Jagdev was already wanted in the murder case, he was not eligible for getting this certificate.

Earlier, Jagdev was granted bail in a fraud case on August 19 but the police added charges under Section 467 of the IPC against him and arrested him again the next day.

Burj Tharod (Bathinda), August 21
Once vulnerable to devastating floods, this village has emerged as a model of rural sustainability in the Malwa belt due to its development on a grid pattern. It has all the facilities that are expected of a modern village - school, wide streets, dispensary, gurudwara, waterworks, sewerage pond, an anganwari centre and even an inn for the poor.

In the 1950s it was swept away by floods and was built anew after the then PEPSU Chief Minister laid a foundation stone in 1956 for a well-planned model village.

Kapoor Singh, 71, a resident, recalls the days, “It was a severe flood, the third in a series that occurred in the 1950s, which swept away the entire village. We all were virtually driven to starvation before some generous people came forward to feed us. Taking pity on our condition, an overseer assured us he would draw up a plan to rebuild the village. The plan was later approved and Brish Bhan, then Chief Minister of PEPSU, laid the foundation stone on April 27, 1956. The late Indira Gandhi also visited our village much before she became Prime Minister,” he added.

Houses in the the newly constructed village were constructed by the government and later allotted to the villagers, who had been provided soft loans that they paid off in 30 years.

The village, which has about 1,200 voters, has seven lanes, all of them 30 ft wide, with a main street vertically crossing the lanes in the middle. There are about 300 houses in all. The first lane has ‘A’ type houses with those of ‘B’ type located on the next four lanes. The sixth and seventh lanes have ‘C’ type houses. All lanes open at a ring road that encircles the whole village. 

Ludhiana, August 21
Based on inputs from the farming sector, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has concluded that input costs on paddy crop have gone up by approximately Rs 1,300 per acre due to use of diesel for irrigation and raising the MSP of the crop by Rs 100 is a mockery of an exercise.

The university estimates show that in the current year, the diesel consumption uptil July 10 for irrigation of the kharif crop had increased by 15 litres per acre. By August 20, the diesel consumption had increased by 40 litres compared to the consumption last year, which had witnessed a normal rainfall.

Dr SS Johl, a leading agro economist, said: “Keeping MSP as announced, the government should instead pay per acre compensation to the farmers for the drought year. Increasing the MSP will mean a direct impact on the spending of a common man, which should be avoided. Why should the common man be burdened with the additional input costs of a farmer?”

Dr Rajinder Sidhu, Head, Economics Department, PAU, said: “By a fair estimate, the rate of the paddy should be pegged at Rs 1,100 per quintal against Rs 950 announced by the government”. Dalbir Singh, a farmer from Chhakowal village, said: “Announcing the MSP now makes no difference to the farmers. In actual practice, it is announced before the crop is planted to allow farmers to plan their produce”.

The university calculations show that the amount spent on diesel for irrigation works to around Rs 325 crore and the consumption is expected to go higher in the coming days. The power subsidy gap of Rs 328 crore compared to last year’s figures was also an additional burden, the note said. “It is noteworthy to mention that area under cultivation, too, has gone down this year because of poor rains. Naturally, the expected yield this year will be lesser too”.

In a drought year, 8 to 10 per cent of the wells go dry “necessitating installation of submersible pumps costing approximately Rs 80,000 each. The total cost estimates border around Rs 650 crore. Many a time, such investment is beyond the reach of small farmers, putting them under severe economic distress, ultimately leading to suicides in certain cases”. The available data shows the water table has gone down and farmers have to spend a huge amount on further deepening of the tubewell bores. 

Chandigarh, August 21
The country may be going through a drought, but Punjab is likely to register an increase in paddy yield this kharif season.

Punjab farmers have also spent negligible sums on insecticides and pesticides because of dry weather. Intermittent rainfall has led to a controlled irrigation, which has also been beneficial for the crop.

However, farmers are likely to pay a heavy price on account of depleting water table with tubewells running round the clock to sustain 27.10 lakh hectares of paddy, only 25,000 hectares less than that the area under the crop last year. The farmers have also spent a great deal of money in sustaining their paddy crop by use of diesel generators in view of an erratic power supply throughout the state.

Punjab Farmers Association’s consultant PS Rangi said coarse rice yield was likely to be better than normal this season. He said earlier data had shown that the paddy yield in the state always increased whenever there was dry weather 
during monsoon.

State Agriculture Director BS Sidhu said farmers might also benefit due to higher degree of vigilance due to increased input costs. He said farmers had spent more on nutrients but admitted that the dry weather had saved the paddy crop from pest attack. He said as far as the crop yield was concerned it could be good as the state had done well during the last drought year of 2002-03.

However, Punjab’s contribution to the Central pool is set to decline by at around 15 lakh metric tonnes this year. This is mainly because the area under basmati has doubled in the state this year. The paddy transplantation season got delayed due to partial failure of monsoon and farmers took advantage of showers in July to transplant basmati. The rains, which were deficient in June, picked up subsequently but are still less than that average rainfall of 251 mm received between June and September during the drought year of 2002-03.

According to figures prepared by the Agriculture Department, Sangrur, has the most area under paddy cultivation, 2.67 lakh hectares. Ferozepur follows it with 2.55 lakh hectares and Ludhiana with 2.54 lakh hectares. The PUSA 44 variety is rated to give the most yields followed by PAU-201 and PR-118 among coarse varieties. Among basmati varieties, Punjab Number I is likely to have the highest yield followed by PUSA-1121.

The area under basmati has increased from 2.5 lakh hectares last year to around 5 lakh hectares this year. With the yield of basmati being much less and the variety not being procured by the state it will have an effect on arrivals and subsequent procurement.

Jalandhar, August 21
The State Foodgrain Agencies Coordination Committee, Punjab, has demanded royalty on wheat contributed by the state to the central pool. If the coal and crude oil producing states like Bihar and Assam are given royalty, Punjab should also get that, it says.

The state that has been contributing over 60 per cent of the total wheat arrivals to the central pool i.e. almost 100 lakh metric tone for many years. Instead of getting royalty, the Centre has been imposed 1 per cent cess on state produce in the form of storage gain. The storage gain is due to absorption of moisture.

Members of the committee revealed that because of global warming, a decrease in rainfall and early arrival of wheat there is a considerable decrease in the moisture which results in financial losses, nearly Rs 700 crore from 1999.

The state government should lay stress on remunerative prices for food grains ensuring at least 50 per cent profit to farmers who have spent huge investments to buy farm machinery and on other agricultural inputs to increase the productivity of wheat and rice in two decades, they added.

Talking to The Tribune, Akshar Kumar, a member of the committee, said after 1986, the harvesting started mechanically and the arrival season was advanced from June to May. At present, the wheat arrival is being completed in mid-April. Different employee unions moved the Supreme Court against the government’s decision on imposing recoveries for non-occurrence of storage gains in 1999.

Even the state government filed an affidavit claiming that previous norms have been withdrawn. Following the directions of the apex court, the council of ministers, Punjab, fixed new norms, claimed Harbilash Das, another committee member.

The state government is in the correspondence process regarding the fresh norms while the Food Corporation of India has staked its claim to the storage gains and started deductions from the bills of the state agencies on this account.

The committee has demanded that the state government should compel the union government for obtaining royalty on wheat contributed to the central pool which would not only safeguard the employees but also help in compensate these deductions. 

Ludhiana, August 21
Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, an accused in the alleged multicrore City Centre Scam, today moved an application, seeking that the case be put off from hearing till the prosecution complies with the mandatory provisions of Sections 173 and 207 of the CrPC.

The application was moved in the court of Sessions Judge G K Rai. It will come up for hearing tomorrow with the main case already fixed for hearing, pending arguments on framing charges against the accused persons.

The process of hearing arguments on consideration of charge against all accused had started on the last date of hearing. Special Public Prosecutor Mitter Sain Goyal had argued for more than two and a half hours stressing on framing consideration. Then the case was adjourned for hearing, pending arguments of prosecution on August 22.

In his application, Capt Amarinder Singh has alleged that there was violation of the mandatory provisions of the CrPC, without which the trial could not proceed for consideration on charge.

The application states that the prosecution was required to provide a list of all documents upon which they rely. The inspection of case file, however, revealed that though a large number of documents and files have been handed over to the accused, these are not mentioned in the list of documents filed along with the challan.

Chandigarh, August 21
Nutritional health of children in Punjab points towards complete failure of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme in the state.

Child development experts today pointed out that the reason that over 80 per cent infants in Punjab and Haryana were anaemic and several other undernourished had mainly to do with the callousness of the state authorities in implementing the ICDS, though some lifestyle factors, too, were at play.

“Only a handful of the children, who need nourishment actually received supplementary food at these centres,” said AK Nanda head of the population research centre, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) Chandigarh, where the NFHS reports for Punjab, Haryana and Himachal were prepared.

In Punjab, the food given at anganwadis includes dalia, kheer and panjiri. “None of these products has any iron,” said Dr Inderjit Singh Bhatia pediatrician at civil hospital SAS Nagar. “Lactating mothers, pregnant women and children of all ages need iron.

“The dalia given through anganwadis can be fortified with iron or there should be at least one preparation that includes green vegetables,” he said.

“The child has to be shifted to nutrition rich food during the weaning period of the child. I feel that the ICDS has not been able to cater, too, well to children under the age of three years,” said Dr Manmohan Kaur, Chairperson, Child Welfare Council, Punjab. 

Mohali, August 21
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to open its regional office at Mohali. This will enable it to monitor its ongoing projects in the state.

Union Minister of Shipping, Road, Transport and Highways, Kamal Nath conveyed this decision to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal during a meeting at New Delhi today.

A government spokesman said the Mohali regional office would be manned by the senior chief general manager. All project directors of various on-going projects in the state would be under him. Besides, a specialised Office would also be set up at Ludhiana to finalise all land-acquisition issues of the NHAI.

The Deputy Chief Minister also sought a special package from the Union Government for revitalising, expansion and strengthening of roads in the state, besides expediting work on the Pathankot-Ajmer Expressway stretch.

Chandigarh, August 21
A special waiver by the state government to the original plot holders to get the conveyance deed of the their properties registered at the allotment price has been extended for another three months. The previous extension was to expire on September 2, but now the facility will be available till December 31.

The decision was today conveyed to representatives of the joint action committee of residents’ welfare associations by state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

It has also been decided to permit holders of immovable property to get these re-allotted through transfer by government and semi-government organisations at the allotment price. The CM asked the Financial Commissioner (Revenue) to bring a detailed agenda in that regard for approval in the next meeting of the Council of Ministers.

The residents were also assured that all re-allottees would be considered on a par with original allottees for the purpose of registration of conveyance deed at the allotment price. The legal heirs of the deceased original allottees of immovable property allotted by government/semi-government bodies would also be entitled to the benefits allowed to original allottees.

Chandigarh, August 21
As the apex court ordered stay on further proceedings in contempt of court case involving Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, ex-media adviser to former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today adjourned the matter to November 27.

The information on stay was given by counsel for the contemnor to the three-judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Surya Kant, which had held Chahal guilty of the contempt of court for having interfered in the administration of justice by preventing submission of certain files to the high court.