Muktsar, October 9
Mutksar is witnessing a glut in paddy arrivals even as various procurement agencies procured two lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy till Thursday evening.

All the six government agencies-Punjgrain, Punjab Warehousing Corporation, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Markfed, Punsup and Punjab Agro, have jumped into the fray to procure paddy. Earlier, there was some hesitation on their part keeping in view the high moisture content of paddy.

With these agencies virtually boycotting the procurement process in the initial stages, various farmers unions had threatened to launch an agitation.

However, in Muktsar district, which has been divided into four zones by the district administration for better supervision of the entire procurement process, all the six agencies are now making their presence felt.

The administration, in an attempt to streamline the procurement process, has segregated the district into Gidderbaha, Bariwala, Malout and Muktsar regions. While the ADC (development) Varun Roojam is keeping a vigil on the Muktsar and Bariwala grain markets, the ADC (general) Jaskiran Singh is supervising the activities at Gidderbaha.

The Muktsar Deputy Commissioner (DC), Rajat Aggarwal, is regulating the procurement process in Malout, considered to be one of the biggest grain markets of Punjab.

In all, 105 purchase centres have been established across the district and every evening the district administration officials hold a meeting under the chairmanship of the DC to review the arrangements.

However, despite the best efforts of the district administration, there were widespread complaints that paddy stocks were not being lifted by the contractors.

Shiv Charan Singh Brar, who had to take away six of his paddy laden trolleys back home due to non-availability of space in the Muktsar grain market said, “Lifting of stocks has been affected due to the rice millers strike. We cannot do much about it as it is a matter between the millers and the Food Corporation of India (FCI). We hope things with will ease in the next few days otherwise the grain markets might choke.”

He added, “On innumerable occasions, in an attempt to hoodwink the poor and ignorant farmers, the procurement agencies and the commission agents do not let the farmers know of the exact amount of moisture content in their paddy stocks. The farmers panic and resort to distress selling of the crop, which means selling paddy much below the minimum support price (MSP) of 1080 per quintal to private dealers. The nexus between the procurement agencies and the commission agents needs to be probed.”

Various farmers unions have said they would prefer to have an independent moisture checking centre in the grain markets so that the farmers are not unduly harassed.

A farmers union activist, preferring anonymity claimed, “Without any doubt the procurement process has been going on smoothly in all the four zones of this district. This is because Muktsar is the Chief Minister's home district.

However, everything is not so smooth in other grain markets of the state. Due to the rice millers strike, lifting of stocks has been badly affected. If the rice millers do not take back their strike, the grain markets, already busting at the seams with stocks, may choke.

This may lead to the procurement process being affected in a big way. If this happens, there will be chaos all around.”

Chaos or no chaos, the farmers of this district have everything to cheer about as far as procurement of their paddy is concerned.

Mansa, October 9
Government purchasing agencies have started purchasing paddy from today. Nearly 1300 tons of paddy was brought to the markets of Mansa district by the farmers in the absence of government procurement agencies.

As per Mandi Board officials, private traders could purchase only 70 ton paddy till now. 420 tons paddy arrived in the purchasing centre of Bhikhi, 302 tons in the market of Sardulgarh, 385 tons in Budhlada, 95 ton in Breta and 87 ton in Mansa. District mandi officer, Ram Gopal Singla, said paddy arrival is slow in Mansa as farmers had grown late arriving varieties of paddy.

He assured that government agencies would purchase all varieties of paddy. Meanwhile, district president of Punjab Kisan Union Balkaran Singh Bally, has demanded that the government agencies should purchase paddy on time. Government agencies purchased 700 quintals of paddy today, it was learnt.

Phulokhari (Bathinda), October 9
Beating out all odds, the Rs 18919-crore Guru Gobind Singh Refinery — a joint venture of the HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) — is now on the track.

Claiming to have completed more than 44 per cent of the total construction work, officials said the 9 million metric ton oil production capacity refinery would be commissioned by mid-2011.

To take a first-hand account of the progress, the board of directors and the chairman of the HMEL, for the first time, held a meeting at the site today.

After the meeting, Arun Balakrishnan, chairman, HMEL, disclosed to the media that about Rs 5,300 crore had already been invested in the project.

He informed that the company, which at present was getting a sales tax exemption of around Rs 250 crore from the Punjab government, had asked for additional fiscal incentives of Rs 2,500 crore. He added that the state government’s response in this regard was positive.

However, he maintained, “Punjab government should match the incentives given to refineries by other states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.”

Balakrishnan said, “We are also aiming at achieving over 25 per cent market share once the refinery is fully commissioned. It will also help in increasing the supply of our products in northern market.”

Replying a query, he said the refinery would cater only to the northern and north-western sectors of the country. “We have provided for doubling the capacity of the refinery from 9 million metric ton per annum,” he informed.

About work on the pipeline for crude oil supply, which is to be laid from Mundra port to Bathinda refinery, Balakrishnan said it was likely to be completed by November 2010 and almost half of the pipeline had already been laid.

“The Rs 4,000-crore worth and 1,000-km-long pipeline is being built in six stretches. Keeping in mind the future requirement, the pipe is being laid with capacity double of the present requirement,” he said.  

Earlier, during a special media visit to the under-construction refinery premises, it was said construction of all 11 units, including captive power plant, buildings, structural work of railway gantry, cooling towers, switch yard, raw water treatment plant, sulphur recovery units, effluent treatment plant, hydrogen generation unit and other equipment was being done on a war footing.

Balakrishnan said out of the total 1992 acres, about 300 acre was being developed as green belt. Besides development, safety norms were also being emphatically implemented.

Officials spoke in detail about various services like education, drinking water, RO plant, medical facility and transportation being provided to labour. It was also informed that the refinery would have its 145 acre township nearby, which would have 650 quarters for its staff and construction process had already been started.

Bathinda, October 9
It was the time for Barthinda cops to set their health in order and bring about a positive change in their lives.

They made an attempt and the DIG Faridkot Dr Jitender Jain and other senior cops led them from the front. As a thorough medical check-up has reported that nearly 50 per cent of cops are unfit, the police department turned to yoga and meditation and vowed to adopt a healthy and positive lifestyle that would enable them to serve the society better.

According to the medical reports of Bathinda police, out of 1,647 cops examined for fitness only 857 were declared fit. It is a cause of concern as the DIG said the cops were suffering from high stress levels and other diseases that need to be checked and controlled. “Personnel carries the responsibility of maintaining law and order have to be fit. But they are not. I have been witnessing for the past 30 years that yoga helps you keep fit but have never adopted it for personal benefit. I would from now do it with all gathered here to promote health and fitness,” Dr Jain said.

Prof M Lal Ji Maharaj and his wife Guru Ma Prabha Ji from Maha Prabhu Yog Divy Mandir, New Delhi, are teaching them the lessons of yoga and meditation during a three-day yoga camp which began at the Police Public School here.

Out of the 1647 cops examined, 353 were found over weight, 79 had sugar problem, 336 suffer from hypertension, 315 had developed addiction while others had problems like spondylitis, thyroid etc. As significant number of cops come under the categories of obese and hypertension, the yoga guru stressed more upon weight control, relaxation exercises and energy boosting exercises.

There were scores of police personnel accompanied with their families who came to attend the camp.

Malkiat Kaur, wife of a DSP’s driver, voiced that her husband’s busy schedule coupled with odd hours of duty has left him with a stiff body and stress. 

Abohar, October 9
“Na khanzar uthega na talwar inse, yeh baju mere azmaye hue hain,” with this Urdu couplet roaring legislator Sunil Jakhar, lashed out during a massive rally at the former BJP MLA, Dr Ram Kumar Goyal and his son Shiv Raj Goyal, president of the local Municipal Council, for getting his supporters, including the chief editor of a local newspaper, falsely booked under various sections of the IPC.

Describing the registration of FIR as a shameful bid, aimed at strangling democratic rights of the aggrieved people of airing their genuine grievances, the MLA asked why the BJP had failed in getting SAD MLA Sarabjit Singh Makkar booked for abusing and humiliating civic bodies minister Manronjan Kalia.

Here in Abohar, residents of Gobind Nagari, have been implicated in a cooked up case only for going to the residence of the council president and shouting slogans, he said.

Alleging that the council led by the BJP had completely failed in keeping up the words given to win the electorates during the municipal elections, Jakhar said all the civic services had completely collapsed due to poor governance, corruption and dictatorial attitude of the leaders, who govern the council here. The council had been able to mobilise only one third of its budgeted income during the last six months. There had been more pilferage than expenditure on development.

Recalling that the Goyal family had claimed that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had agreed to sanction development plans worth Rs 100 crore for this area, Jakhar said so far not a penny had been received here.

These Goyals are virtually trying to follow the footprints of INLD leader Om Parkash Chautala’s sons. They will have to face the same political faith in the next elections, he remarked.

Mathura Dass Hiteshi, former chairman of the improvement trust, BL Nagpal and Balbir Singh Danewalia, presidents of Congress committees, Youth Congress president Shailender Singh Jakhar, councillors Vimal Thathai and Prem Kalra, Consumer Movement chairman Sat Pal Khariwal also lambasted the council for its failure on all fronts. 

Abohar, October 9
Several thousand students along with hundreds of teachers and representatives of some NGOs participated in the “Polythene Hatao” rally here on Friday. The event was aimed at mobilising the citizens to bid adieu to the use of polythene bags latest by November 1.

Normally senior officials had been registering only a symbolic participation after flagging off such awareness rallies but there was no ceremonial flag off today, none posed for photographs.

SDM Amit Dhaka walked with the students as they traversed more than five km long route. The rally that kick started from the Nehru Park covered nearly half of the sub-divisional town by passing through the main roads and bazaars before dispersing at the starting point in the afternoon.

It also attracted the attention of protest rally that the Congress had organised outside the local Municipal Council. A party worker, Vinod Sharma, while conducting the stage not only made a befitting reference to the awareness rally but also exhorted the gathering to stop using polythene.

The students carried banners and placards that read ‘save life, say no to polythene’. They too believed that excessive use of polythene and dumping the same in streets was squarely responsible for the choked sewerage system as tones of polythene material had been stacked during de-silting of the main-holes of sewerage pipelines in the past.

Moreover, post-mortem conducted on many stray cattle confirmed that they had died due to presence of non-soluble polythene during consumption of roughage.

Earlier, the SDM had tried to motivate the heads of the local schools to collect polythene bags weekly for damaging the same but only students of the Assumption Convent School responded by dumping 70 kg waste polythene bags.

Faridkot, October 9
Science drama ‘Paani Da Bhoot’ was presented by the Dasmesh Public School, Faridkot , at National Science Drama Festival Organised by the Government of India at the Birla Industrial and Technology Museum, Kolkata. The inauguration ceremony of the festival was performed by Karuna Singh Das, vice-chancellor of Ravindra Bharati university. Along with this proud distinction of representing the Punjab state and co-representing north India, the school also won as a first-timer by successfully competing at the district, state and north India levels.

The nine-member drama team of Master Sukhpreet Singh, Anmol Singh, Bikramjit Singh, Jaspreet Singh ,Gurminder singh ,Harpreet Kaur, Rajinder kaur, Master Raminder Singh and Navnoor Singh focussed the attention of the audience at all levels of performance on the issue of water pollution.

Giving a message through the national dramatic forum, the drama forcefully brought home the negative role played by the people and blind-eye turned by respective governments in tackling the menace of water pollution which takes a heavy toll of human life through cancer. School drama teacher Shinder Pal was honoured as the best director and the students named as Navnoor Singh, Jaspreet Singh and Sukhpreet Singh were adjudged as best the artists. The students have been honoured with certificates, medals and cash awards. Principal Gurcharan Singh congratulated all the students concerned and their parents. 

Barnala, October 9
A field day on “Proper spraying technology for increasing crop yields” was organised at the farm of Gurmail Singh ‘Bhola’ of village Sekha in this district on Thursday. The field day was jointly organised by the Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana; Farm Advisory Service Scheme and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Kheri), Sangrur.

Addressing the gathering, chief guest Dr Mukhtar Singh Gill, director, Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana, urged the farmers to save precious underground water resources of Punjab. Speaking on the occasion, Dr US Walia, head, Department of Agronomy, highlighted the importance of cultural control of weeds in wheat, which could significantly reduce weed problems. Rajesh Jain, vice-president, Syngenta, shared the activities of their company. Dr Surjit Singh gave a lecture on proper herbicide spraying techniques, followed by a practical demonstration.

Dr JS Kolar, Dr GS Rattan, Dr Parminder Singh, Dr Mandeep Singh, Dr Bharat Singh, Dr AS Sandhu, Dr Roopinder Singh, Dr Maninder Kaur of Punjab Agricultural University were also present on the occasion. 

Mansa, October 9
Farmer leaders of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), who had been released from Burail jail on Thursday, were honoured in their respective villages by the union workers and villagers today.

These farmers were arrested last month during the Chandigarh rally. Out of 26 farmers, who had been released from the jail till now, six farmers were from Mansa.

Addressing the rallies, Ram Singh Bhainibagha, Mahinder Singh Romana and the released farmers said their struggle would continue in the interests of farmers and the government could not stop it. They criticised the Centre and state government for adopting anti-farmer policies.