Jalandhar, March 27
It has been a bad season for the leather industry of Jalandhar. There have been fewer export orders. There wasn’t much demand from the domestic front either.

Lack of quality raw material and two-and-a-half-day power cuts are forcing tanners into a problematic situation.

Owners of nearly 60 tanning units located in the leather complex on Kapurthala Road here, claim that there has been an acute shortage of quality raw material.

Animals are badly infested with ticks, owing to which the leather fails to pass quality tests for export purposes.

They claim that while small pox has been eradicated in human beings, the infection continues to affect animals leaving them with lesions on their skin, again leading to the rejection of the leather in foreign market.

Punjab Leather Federation president Col J.S. Paul said the Animal Husbandry Department needed to sort out the problem. The dairy farmers needed to be provided with some preventive medicines or vaccination against infections to that they could maintain a healthy livestock.

Since the animal-keeping tendency of the farmers is on a decline in Punjab, the department needs to take an initiative to encourage farmers to raise buffaloes.

“The meat of the animal can fetch the owners high price from Middle East and Europe while the skin of each full-grown animal can yield 40 feet leather,” Col Paul said.

Till December this year, finished leather worth just Rs 63 crore had been exported. He added that locally there had been a demand only from Agra and NCR.

The adviser of the leather industry, PLF, S.P.S. Virk, said the power cut imposed by the PSEB was further spoiling the business. The cut begins every Saturday evening at 9 pm and continues till 8.30 next morning.

“The cost of diesel has gone up so it is not viable to use,” he rued.

Hoshiarpur, March 27
The Congress has accused the SAD leadership of going too soft and even adopting sympathetic attitude towards the hardcore elements, who have been trying to revive terrorism in Punjab.

MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said there was anticipation of revival of terrorism in Punjab and this fact had been proved by the recent arrests of five activists of Babbar Khalsa.

Addressing his first conference here today, Bittu, also the President of the Punjab Youth Congress, said the Pakistan government through its terror outfits was luring disgruntled Sikh unemployed youths to indulge in terror activities so that it could again disturb the peaceful atmosphere of Punjab.

He said whenever the SAD came to power, majority of Sikh youths under frustration joined terrorism. Punjab had already suffered for more than 10 years of terrorism and lost about 25,000 men, women and children during this period. Many of the Punjabis migrated to other states.

It was the Congress under the leadership of his grandfather late Beant Singh, somehow, controlled terrorism by sacrificing his life. He cautioned the people to remain vigilant from the evil designs of Pakistan and Babbar Khalsa.

Expressing his deep concern over the prevailing price hike of essential commodities, Bittu said though rising prices was a global issue but the state governments had not taken any action against the hoarders and black marketeers. Though he admitted there were also some lapses by the Central government in tackling the issue. The Central and state governments should jointly formulate some action plan to control the prices.