Muktsar, February 5
Terming it as the need of the hour to change the “outdated” policies of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in procuring paddy, activists of the Consumer Welfare Council (CWC) having its headquarters here have come up with a five-point suggestion chart, which they have sent to all departments concerned of the Union government, including the PM office.

Stressing upon restructuring the food policies of the FCI as per global standards, the activists stated that when the whole world was changing its economic policies to meet global challenges and provide maximum relief and quality food to people, the FCI was wasting crores of rupees on its procurement process and then storing it in open godowns, which was a national loss.

Sharing the content of letter with The Tribune, the CWC members today said they suggested for increasing rice storage space as due to the non-availability of standardised warehouses, the country was suffering huge losses. They recommended the FCI should send a delegate abroad to study and adopt the food-related procedure there.

Further, the letter suggested agreement with the Railways for buffer storage. Giving weight to the point, the CWC referred that crores of rupees could be saved if the FCI constructed godowns on rail heads. It would help in saving transportation charges, decrease the risk of theft and transit loss.

Floating an advice to clear pending cases of rice millers, the CWC members suggested for the launch of either a one time settlement (OTS) scheme or establishing Lok Adalats, which would save time and energy of senior bureaucrats as well as of the millers of Punjab. They mentioned that numerous pending cases related to bags, transport, quality cuts, etc, had been creating hurdles in smooth flow of process.

Proposing another policy, the activists suggested that the FCI should pay extra premium for quality rice or to accept the Sortex rice for central pool, which might solve the dispute among milers and authorities.

Seeking independent test laboratories to check the quality of rice, the CWC stated that such process would help rice millers in getting justice and avoiding harassment.

Confirming the contents of the letter, Bhagwan Bansal, president of the Consumer Welfare Council, said, “After a deep study of the changing scenario of world, we have floated the suggestions. We are hopeful that considering these points, the Union government may save lakhs of tonnes of food grain and make the country strong.”

Moga, February 5
Reacting to a news report ‘Millers importing poor quality rice into state’ in The Tribune, the top brass of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), have dispatched a technical team of experts to Moga and Ferozepur districts for collecting samples of the rice from the store houses of the corporation.

The team led by Inder Kumar Negi, deputy general manager (quality control) arrived in Moga yesterday night. The team collected as many as five samples of rice from the store houses of the corporation at Ajitwal in the Moga district today.

The exercise began in the morning and continued till late afternoon. The district manager of the FCI, DK Jain also accompanied the team.

Negi while claiming that it was a normal exercise of the FCI said they carry out such operations every year. “Visibly it appears to be that the rice stored in this storehouse is fine but we will conduct laboratory tests to ascertain the nature of its quality.”

He said that the team would go to Ferozepur today and collect samples from the FCI storehouses on Saturday. In reply to a question, he said that samples would also be taken from Guru Har Sahai and Jalalabad storehouses.

The Tribune in its report had highlighted that the rice traders of state were importing raw rice of poor quality from outside states and mixing it with locally produced rice, the milling of which is in progress these days.

There were also reports that by mixing low quality rice grains, the millers were also playing with the health of consumers. Many of them hardly use ‘colour sortex’, which sorts grains-yellow in one section and brown in the other because even if it was sub-standard, looked of good quality without ‘colour sortex’.

Though it was a hard fact to believe but this practice involving thousands of crores of rupees was going on with a nexus among officials of the state Food and Supplies Department, the FCI and millers “under the shelter of politicians in power.” 

Bathinda, February 5
Continuing its endeavour to encourage their “valued” landline subscribers, telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Bathinda telecom district, has chosen another 10 customers to reward them for maintaining a commendable track record in terms of depositing their telephone bills in due time.

The BSNL has been presenting awards to their customers who have been depositing bills of their basic phones in due time for the last six or more months.

The ‘lucky’ customers were selected today through a draw system. DGM Amit Garg randomly selected 10 subscribers falling under the Bathinda and Mansa districts.

Garg said each ‘lucky’ subscriber would be given an ‘India Card’ of the value of his last telephone bill. He added that the rewards would be delivered free of cost at their billing address soon.

The customers selected for prizes belong to areas, including Bathinda local, Nathana, Sardoolgarh, Mansa, Madi and others.

Garg said the BSNL would conduct such lucky draw in the month of March also to cheer up its valued customers.

Senior BSNL officials, including RS Sethi DE (Mobile), Ashwini Kumar SDE (Marketing) and others were also present during the lucky-draw exercise.

Bathinda, February 5
The District Consumer Forum, Mansa, today ordered the Airtel to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a subscriber whose connection was disconnected without prior notice.

The Forum, presided by George and members Neena Rani and Sarat Chander, also ordered the Airtel to pay to the complainant a sum of Rs 5,000 as litigation cost. Disconnection of the mobile phone connection had caused mental tension, harassment, inconvenience and monetary loss to the complainant, the Forum observed.

The subscriber, Parmod Kumar, had complained to the Forum that his mobile connection was disconnected on April 26, 2005, without any prior notice. Consequently, he filed a complaint on the basis of which the Forum directed the company to restore the mobile connection. However, the connection worked till October 10, 2009, when it was again disconnected without prior notice. Efforts of the subscriber to get the connection restored remained futile and he again approached the Forum.

Bathinda, February 5
It was a matter of pride for local school children today who bagged prizes for painting imaginative posters against drug abuse. The school children had come out with striking ideas and slogans against drug abuse.

These posters will now be put up as hoardings at prominent places in the town, said DIG Jitendera Jain, who had organised the poster making competition.

Bawanpreet Singh of the Baba Farid Public School and Nikita Goyal of the Sanawar Public School bagged first prize of Rs 2,100 each in the categories of classes VII to XII and primary to class V, respectively. Nandini Sharma of Sanawar Public School and R Monisha of Kendriya Vidayalaya I secured second prize of Rs 1,100 each in the two categories. Jarnail Singh of Guru Nanak Dev Public School and Ravinder Singh of Sanawar Public School bagged third prize of Rs 500 each in the two categories. Besides, 21 other students were given consolation prize of Rs 100 each and a certificate.

Jain emphasised the need for students to keep away from drugs and lead a healthy life.

Principals and teachers of the schools participating in the competition were present on the occasion. 

Bathinda, February 5
The Joint Morcha of Rural and Agriculture Worker Organisations, comprising Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM), the Dehati Mazdoor Sabha (DMS) and the Kull Hind Khet Mazdoor Union (KHKMU), today staged a dharna and held a rally outside the Mini-secretariat here in support of their demands. They also raised slogans against the government and submitted a memorandum enlisting their demands to the office of the SDM here.

Their demands include employment for full year to the labourers under the NREGA; Rs 200 per day as wages to all men and women workers under NREGA without any discrimination; Rs 1,000 per month as social security pension to elderly persons, widows, disabled persons and dependent children; 10 marla plots to houseless persons; and stoppage of privatisation of hospitals. They asked the government to release the funds for clearing the pending cases of “Shagun scheme” and other social welfare schemes.

District president of MMM Harwinder Singh Sema, state committee member of DMS Mithoo Singh, district secretary of MMM Ami Chand, district convener of DMS Mahi Pal and member of district committee of KHKMU Balwinder Singh were present. — TNS

Ferozepur, February 5
The police has registered a case against four persons in connection with the death of a newly-wedded girl on the basis of a complaint by her brother.

As per the information, the girl, identified as Sonia, was married to Himanshu in September last year. In a statement to the police, her brother, Raman Dhawan stated that Sonia was being troubled by her in-laws quite often in order to pressurise her to bring more dowry.

Raman said that today when he along with his friend went to his sister’s house, to his utter shock, he found that his sister’s husband Himanshu along with other members of the family including his father Pradeep, mother Vibha and brother Nikhil were allegedly beating his sister up.

Raman said that he immediately took her to the hospital where she was declared brought dead. Gulshan Dhawan, father of the deceased, who is employed with the municipal committee, also said that Sonia’s in-laws were allegedly demanding a car from them.

He said that all possible efforts were made from their side to celebrate their daughter’s wedding as per the wishes of her in-laws.

Even sufficient dowry was also given, which was more than their status and that they could afford, said the father, demanding that stringent action should be taken against her in-laws.

Bathinda, February 5
Acting upon the inquiry report of the Economic Offence Wing (EOW), the Cantonment police booked one Jagdish Chander of Amrik Singh road here, who allegedly duped several Army men in the name of fake insurance policies and certificates.

Among others, Naik Vishva Nath, Havildar Sona, Sepoy Ajay Pal, Subedar Vidyanand and Subedar Tarlochan Singh were those who accused Jagdish for deceiving them in the name of life insurance policies.

After investigating the matter, EOW officials found that accused Jagdish Chander had forged some documents printing the national emblem over them. Meanwhile, he used to issue donation and medical help certificates in the name of a Real Dream Charitable Trust presenting them as life insurance policies.

The police has registered a case under sections 420 and 482 of the IPC. — TNS