Jalandhar, August 24
Setting up of a large number of thermal plants can prove to be a curse for Punjab. Asserting this, Dr HS Virk, a nuclear physicist and director of a research centre in a local institute, on Friday said the latest scientific studies made in leading international institutions had proved that some highly toxic substances such as mercury and uranium were released in the environment because of the burning of coal.

About 120 lakh tonnes coal will be burnt daily when all seven thermal plants become operational in the state, and in the process thousands of tonnes of fly ash will be generated. Besides three already operational thermal plants at Bathinda, Lehra and Ropar, two are coming up and the other two are awaiting some technical clearances from the Union government. The Bathinda area faces health hazards due to the high uranium content in the environment.

Quoting a latest study, published by Science Daily, made by Duke University environmental engineers, Dr Virk, who did his doctorate in nuclear physics from France, said owing to the burning of coal, mercury was released into the environment. Amrika Deonarine, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, had found that organic matter and chemical compounds containing sulphur, known as sulfides, could readily bind to form mercury sulfide nano-particles, said Dr Virk. This particular harmful form of the element, known as methyl mercury, was a potent toxin for nerve cells.

When ingested by living beings, it was not excreted and builds up in tissues or organs, said Dr Virk. There could also be other harmful effects of mercury ingestion on living creatures, he added.

“There are many ways mercury gets into environment, with the primary sources being the combustion of coal, the refining of such metals as gold and other non-ferrous metals and in the gases released during volcanic eruptions. The airborne mercury from these sources eventually lands on lakes or ponds and contaminates water and sediments,” states the study.

Quoting another study published by the United States Geological Survey, Dr Virk said, “It has been reported that the burning of coal releases uranium, thorium and their highly active decay products in the environment.” He said the US Environmental Protecting Agency was worried about radioactive elements from fly ash as these can raise the content of radon and uranium in drinking water.

Already uranium content has been found up to a worrisome level in certain parts especially in Bathinda Thermal Plant power colony. Bathinda is known as the cancer belt of Punjab now.

Dr Virk said ironically Punjab had opposed the installing of nuclear power plants in the state whereas it was all for setting up thermal plants, which produce coal ash that is more radioactive than nuclear waste.

He said it would be more proper to take into account all scientific studies made on burning of coal, fly ash, etc before opting recklessly for thermal plants.

Bathinda, August 24
The police has stepped up vigil in the city, especially on the outskirts, to check theft and other crimes. The night domination drive has been augmented and to ensure round-the-clock security, the police, in collaboration with the Bathinda Development Authority, has appointed around 30 traffic marshals.

Ashish Chowdhary, SSP, Bathinda, today stated that the night domination drive had been made more aggressive on the outskirts of the city and at isolated pockets. The step has been taken in the backdrop of the ‘Kala Kacha’ gang that striked Beer Basti a few days back.

“No arrest has been made so far in the case but we are keeping in touch with the Haryana police because similar incidents have been taking place there also. We have identified some isolated pockets and the investigations are on. Such gangs have a modus operandi, which we are following to nab them. They generally strike at secluded spots,” he added.

The traffic marshals would be serving a dual purpose. One would be from the law and order point of view and on the other, they would also prevent stray cattle from entering into the city. The marshals would be on duty from today at 15 sealing points in and around the city. Most of these points were near canals, the cop informed.

CCTV cameras would also be installed at these sealing points, which would be connected to the police control room. Communication equipment too would be set up in a week or so. Along with traffic marshals, a cop would also be deployed at the points. Besides, five supervisors would be hired to assist the traffic marshals. They would be on round 24X7.

The SSP also informed that police teams have been despatched to certain spots, where migrant population stays, to jot down their details.

“Gangs like ‘Kala Kacha’ strike at places that are 40-50 km from the place of their residence. So, it becomes necessary to keep a tab on migrant population. As of now, we do not have a record of how many migrant families reside in Bathinda and this step would help us in getting such details also,” Chowdhary said.

Bathinda, August 24
Cotton growers today lamented that their produce have not been lifted from the market for the past 20 days. They also regretted the price they get for their produce.

Farmers of Malwa region, also known as the cotton belt of Punjab, have no option except to depend on cotton every year as they feel that they are forced to grow cotton as other crops need more water to sustain themselves and water available here is less than rest of the state.

Due to erratic monsoon this time, the situation became worse as farmers bank upon rainwater for irrigation. Moreover, rainwater is pure as compared to the contaminated groundwater. If crops in this region are irrigated with groundwater it leaves behind a white powder that makes the land unfit for cultivation.

Apart from this, Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta) stated that there has been no increase in the price of cotton this year. It is the same as last year i.e. Rs 2,800 per quintal.

“The rearing amount of cotton per quintal amounts to Rs 5,500. The amount set by the government would not even compensate the amount spent on growing the produce. After hike in paddy MSP coming as a shock, we don’t know what to do with our crop, which is lying in the market for about 20 days now,” said Joginder Singh Ugrahan from the BKU (Ekta).

Agreeing to this K.K. Singla, chief information officer, Agriculture Department, Bathinda, stated that the price fixed by the government has not been increased this year and the rearing cost of cotton was more than what the farmers get by selling their harvest.

With 75 per cent farmers of Malwa belt growing cotton crop, they have to bear losses for the second consecutive year.

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), which buys cotton from the market for the price fixed by the government, has not come here yet due to which the farmers are selling their yield to other buyers who further bargains on the price, Joginder said.

Farmers would be meeting on August 26 to discuss step to be taken to ensure that they do not face injustice this year.

Bathinda, August 24
The personalised agriculture information service has been launched in Bathinda.

The Reuters Market Light (RML) and the Markfed today launched the service here during a function. The RML is India’s first personalised agriculture information providing company which gives personalised, customised and localised information to farmers on their phone through text and voice SMS in local languages. The RML provides information to farmers related to weather forecasts, crop advisory, mandi prices and local news, all of which help farmers to take better decisions. Markfed has the advantage of dep penetration and a strong distribution network thus helping RML to reach maximum number of farmers in the district.

Harbant Singh, director co-operative societies, Markfed DM MS Brar and others were present during the function. — TNS

Chandigarh, August 24
In protest against the alleged apathetic attitude of the government towards their demands, more ex-servicemen would return their medals to the President. About 15,000 medals have already been deposited at Rashtrapati Bhawan on four occasions earlier.

According to a statement issued by the Indian Ex-servicemen’s Movement, the medals would be collected from across the country and brought to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on September 13.

Thereafter, a delegation of ex-servicemen would proceed to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to deposit them with the President, the Supreme Commander of the armed forces.

The statement said a huge gap still existed between pre and post-January, 2006, retirees, and that was expected to widen further.

Senior officers were drawing far less pension than their juniors, it said.

The statement said the concept of three assured career progressions (ACP) had been accepted by the government, but the same had not been applied to old pensioners.

Further, while implementing the Supreme Court judgment in connection with fixing pension of Major-Generals, the government had accepted that the concept of granting the same pension to pre and post-1996 retirees would be applicable.

In the same way, the government should have applied the concept in case of pre and post-January 2006 retirees also, the statement added.

Abohar, August 24
The reported detention of about 24 trucks on this side of the inter-state border by the sales tax authorities recently, indicates that the traders were trying to thwart all the efforts being made by the Central government to bring down the price rise, sources said.

As per the information, as many as 23 trucks, loaded with bags of grams, entered the Abohar sub-division from Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan recently. The sales tax authorities were concerned only over evasion of four per cent VAT that was to be paid at the Information Collection Centre based at village Kallarkhera on the NH-15.

Rajasthan government had prohibited storage of grains exceeding 200 quintals. It appeared from the documents that were screened by the authorities that a trader based at Bikaner had sold grams to his counterparts in Abohar and Mohali but VAT was not paid. The consignment was likely to be stored in a food processing unit located on Punjab side near the Rajasthan border, sources added. — OC

Ferozepur, August 24
The state government has given its nod for construction of new judicial complexes at Ferozepur, Abohar and Jalalabad besides construction of the district administrative complex (DAC) at the district headquarters, revealed KK Yadav, deputy commissioner (DC), while presiding over a meeting to take stock of the ongoing development work here on Monday.

Yadav said that the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his recent visit to this town held a meeting with Jaspal Singh, Sessions Judge, wherein he gave sanction for the construction of the judicial complex at Jalalabad, on which an estimated cost of Rs 1025.27 lakhs is likely to be incurred.

He further said that the site for the construction of DAC was also selected by the CM and the work on the same will begin soon after approval of the drawings made by the chief architect, Punjab. The DAC will be a three storeyed sprawling complex, on which, an amount of Rs 35 crores would be spent, he added.

Yadav mentioned that a new bus stand at an expenditure of Rs 123 lakh will be constructed in Jalalabad besides establishing a modern hospital at village Ghubaya, on which Rs 65 lakhs will be spent. In addition, five new 'Adarsh Schools' will also come up in Jalalabad tehsil, for which Rs 170.93 lakhs has been sanctioned, said DC.

He pointed out that a new modern grain market was being set up in Talwandi Bhai at a cost of Rs 16.92 crores besides Rs 47.28 lakhs will be spent on the construction of boundary wall in the Grain Market, Fazilka.

Another Rs 88.53 lakhs will be spent on construction of the roads in the Grain Market, Jalalabad, and Rs 65.53 lakh would be spent on renovation of the Grain Market, Mallanwala.

The DC further stated that 20 km long new roads will be constructed in all the eight Vidhan Sabha segments of the district. He said an amount of Rs 7570.86 lakhs has been spent on Ferozepur-Dharamkot road and another Rs 1135 lakhs were being spent on the repair and widening of Harike-Makhu-Zira road, he said. Further, 217 new rooms were being constructed in the primary and recently upgraded schools in the district.

Yadav said that the approaches of the age-old railway overbridge joining the city and cantonment areas will be reconstructed at a cost of Rs 8.76 crores, the work on which will soon begin.

Abohar, August 24
As the police remained clueless over scores of thefts reportedly committed during the year, the miscreants dared to burgle the residence of former Pradesh Congress president and Rajya Sabha member Virendra Kataria on Sunday night.

As per the information, Kataria had arrived here on Saturday night from New Delhi in connection with the interviews, scheduled for Sunday, for recruitment of lecturers in the DAV College of Education, being chairman of the Local Advisory Committee (LAC). His son Biren was away to Jaipur with other members of the family.

The former MP said when he came out of his bedroom on Monday morning, he was stunned to find all other rooms open. Prima facie, it appeared that the burglars had scaled the boundary wall of the house named Ashiana located at the DAV campus lane in new Suraj Nagari.

The iron grill of a room on the ground floor had been broken to make way to the rooms located on the first floor. After breaking the locks of all the doors, the miscreants managed to open all the wall robes and steel almirahs.

It could not be ascertained immediately as to what extent they succeeded. However, most of the electronics goods were found intact, preliminary inquiries indicated.

City-II SHO, Balkar Singh, questioned the servants, who were reportedly sleeping in their respective rooms.

The investigation is likely to be referred to the CIA staff but its in-charge was away to the district headquarter to attend an official meeting, it is learnt. 

Mansa, August 24
Nearly 284 cancer patients had been found in the villages of Mansa during a survey, which was recently conducted by the health department of the Mansa district.

As per the information from health department, 87 cancer patients had been detected in Khiala block, 94 in Sardulgarh and 103 in Budhlada block.

However, Mansa city with a population of nearly 80,000 was not included in the survey. Most of the women were found to be affected by breast cancer.

It was learnt during the survey that most of the patients were compelled to opt for expensive treatment at Bikaner in Rajasthan, PGI Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Delhi in the absence of a cancer hospital in Malwa.

A cancer patient Partap Singh demanded that keeping in view the increasing number of cancer patients, a cancer hospital must be established in the Malwa region.

Civil surgeon, Mansa, Dr Prithpal Singh, pointed out that drinking water of this area was considered to be the main cause of cancer.

Along with this, fertilisers and pesticides, being used in excessive quantity, were also the main source of cancer.

Meanwhile, Ajeet Inder Singh Moffar, MLA, woman leader Rekha Sharma and ex-MLA Butta Singh have demanded that in view of the increasing number of cancer patients, the government should take effective steps for the treatment of patients who are unable to afford expensive treatment at other places. 

Bathinda, August 24
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the North India Technical Consultancy Organisation Limited (NITCON) organised a skill development initiative programme here today.

The literacy programme of the initiative took place today in which 75 rural and urban literate girls submitted their applications. Out of these, 36 applications were short-listed. Rajiv Aggarwal from NABARD, Vijay Arora of NITCON, Shikha Gupta of the SBI and Maninder Kaur, a fashion technologist, were among those present at the programme.

Aggarwal said such programmes would prove useful for women who want to start their own boutique. After training, the interested candidates would get bank loan to start their project, he added. He said a similar programme on inventor assembling trade was started at Talwandi Sabo for boys. — TNS

Abohar, August 24
The Sriganganagar chapter of Spic Macay (Society for promotion of Indian classical music and culture among youths) had the privilege of kickstarting the golden jubilee celebrations of the DAV College here today with 85 minutes of non-stop presentation of Punjabi folk songs and dances by the famous Rangla group led by Sukhvinder Singh.

Spic Macay coordinator, Subhash Gogi said that Sukhvinder had represented Punjab in several other countries, including Thailand, Russia, Germany, Mauritius, Dubai, Korea, South and East Africa, Kuwait, Zambia. China, Tanzania.

Sagar Sharma, an artist from Rajasthan, said that ambassadors of India across the world had appreciated Sukhvinder and awarded medals for ethically demonstrating the rich folk of Punjab by using traditional instruments like tumbi, bugchu, algoze, chhike.

The artists were welcomed by Dr BB Sharma, principal of the college and Dev Mittar Ahuja, chairman of the local advisory committee.

BS Bhullar, dean of the extra mural activities (EMA), thanked the Spic Macay for adopting the Malwa region and requested to bring Rajasthani folk singers and dancers also during the next programme.

Interestingly, there were only seven dance performers on the stage while others extended support behind the stage with heartthrobbing music.

Untiring dancers kept the audience spell bound. The lead singer Manjit Malhi not only prompted over 2500 students to accord musical applause but also to dance around their seats.

The artists included Sangeeta, Jasleen, Gurpreet Kaur, Harpal Singh, Harvinder Singh, Harjit Singh, Pritam Singh and Baby. Sammi, Jindua, Gidha and Jaago mesmerised the gathering while Malhi was at his best in singing ‘chhalla’, ‘aaja nach lay’ and ‘chan kithan gujari hayee raat ve.’ 

Sriganganagar/Abohar, August 24
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh inaugurated Shah Satnam Ji Girls College recently.

Rooh-e-Meet Insan, head of the Shah Satnam Singh Ji Educational Wing, said in an introductory note that the college has all the basic facilities.

Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner, has accorded affiliation to the college and admission for BCA, BA Arts and Commerce classes have been started, he informed.