Kapurthala, April 4
No house will remain without a toilet in any of the villages in the Bholath Assembly constituency of this district. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal assured former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur that adequate funds would be provided to poor families to construct toilets.

Talking to The Tribune, Bibi Jagir Kaur said she met the Chief Minister at Lambi in Muktsar district on Friday to pursue genuine requirements of the Bholath segment from where she had been contesting elections on the SAD ticket for several years.

Badal earmarked Rs 2 crore for 2,000 families belonging to the Dalit and general categories whose houses did not have toilets, the Bibi said, adding that Rs 10,000 would be provided to each family to build its own toilet.

District Development Committee (DCC) Chairperson Bibi Jagir Kaur said Badal had also approved Rs 2 crore for 50 sports clubs in this segment. Each club would get Rs 2 lakh to construct one room and purchase equipment, she added.

Bibi claimed that Badal had given his nod to provide Rs 10 crore for executing different development works in Bholath in the current financial year.

Bibi Jagir Kaur said all the kutcha roads and “dhanis” would be bricked with the funds sanctioned by the CM.

She said Badal had directed Deputy Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary to send a formal proposal for these development works for releasing the money. A meeting of the sarpanches of villages in the Bholath segment would be held on April 8 for finalisation of the proposal, she added.

Amritsar, April 4
Local people have evinced keen interest in the Amritsar Book Fair as a stall of the National Book Trust (NBT) registered a sale of books worth Rs 35,000 on the first day of the fair.

The NBT is holding a nine-day fair for the first time in Amritsar, which would conclude on April 11.

Joint Director-cum-Chief Editor, NBT, Dr Baldev Singh Baddan, said about 75 stalls had been set up by publishers from various parts of the country, including Delhi, Pune, Chandigarh, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar.

Books on varied subjects, including literary, religion, science fiction, children books and nursery rhymes, had been displayed at the fair.

Baddan said more than sale, the motive was to inculcate and promote book culture in the city.

The NBT has also made a stage amidst the stalls of books to provide interested literary and cultural organisations a free platform to perform creative arts and deliver lectures. A classical music show would be held on the evening of April 6 and a kavi darbar and a lecture by Punjabi critic and poet Dr Karanjit Singh of Delhi on April 7. Three literary lectures and a play on environment would be organised on April 9 and 10, respectively.

Meanwhile, Gurcharan Singh Babbar, president, All-India Sikh Conference, released his book “Indian Government Organised Carnage” in Punjabi at the fair today. His book has already been printed in Hindi and Urdu, apart from English.

He objected the use of “danga” word (communal violence) for the killing of Sikhs in 1984. He alleged that the successive Congress governments used the word to misguide people. He elaborated that in a communal violence there were two communities attacking each other. However, in the 1984 riots, Hindus saved their Sikh brothers and sisters from the marauding gangs. He said the Central government wanted to divide the two communities.

Gurdaspur, April 4
The district administration is making all efforts to check the scourge of floods which, for the last so many decades, have been ravaging this district due to the overflowing waters of the Ravi and the Beas during the rainy season.

Deputy Commissioner Karamjit Singh Sra and other officials visited villages near the Pakistan border, which face the flood threat from the Ravi and Beas rivers during the next monsoon season.

The officials identified Makora Pattan, Ram Sahay, Adian and Ghaniye as the most “sensitive villages”.

The DC asserted that Rs 7 crore had been earmarked to provide protection to these villages. The Ravi, flowing along the Indo-Pakistan border, has been playing havoc during monsoons for the past so many decades.

Drainage department officials reveal that the river, flowing in a crisscross manner along the international boundary in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, poses perennial threat to the villagers who have to pay heavily for the destruction it causes year after year.

Sra said, “The floods are caused by the overflowing of the Ravi and Beas rivers or by excessive rains and have become an annual feature in this district. Their intensity varies from year to year and from place to place. In fact, the floods have proved to be a major stumbling block in the overall economic progress in Gurdaspur. Every year these waters cause extensive damage to life, property and crops, with the result that the economy goes for a spin. However, this year we are taking protective measures and I have instructed officials to prepare estimates after which we will start work.” The drainage department officials are also worried over soil erosion caused by these floods.

Although officials are trying to check the floods, people living along the Ravi are not happy. Revealed a village elder, “Senior functionaries of the drainage department simply fail to take protective measures whenever the floods occur because they are not given the required money by the state government to carry out essential civil works.”

Amritsar, April 4
To step up dairy farming, the Punjab government has decided to appoint 100 veterinary doctors and 130 veterinary inspectors in the Animal Husbandry Department. This proposal has got the nod from the state finance wing.

Disclosing this during the inauguration of the Dairy Training and Expansion Centre proposed at Verka here, Punjab Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, said various schemes have been on the agenda of the government to boost up dairy farming.

“With the strengthening of the medical aspect of milch cattle, it would further enhance milk production, besides providing the right approach to aspirants for the proper upkeep of animals,” he said.

Detailing about the centre, educated aspirants would be made self-reliant by way of being provided with a 45-day training course in vaccination, upkeep and ailments associated with cattle.

In Punjab, the total production of milk amounts to nearly 260 lakh litres.

“This is not sufficient keeping in view the milk consumption stats of the state. At present, only 200 millilitre of milk is available for per head consumption against the requirement of a litre per person. This implies that milk production needs to be enhanced”, he opined.

Addressing the gathering, he urged them to set up at least 100 to 200 milk production units to meet this demand.

“There are only 50 milk production units in the state, this needs to be increased”, he said.

While elaborating on infrastructure planning, the minister said the government has spent about Rs 32 crore to establish around seven veterinary polytechnic and 19 veterinary hospitals.

“About Rs 35 crore would be spent on maintaining them. Plans are in the pipeline to establish veterinary hospitals and polytechnic institutes each, at every block level. It has been mooted that these institutes would be equipped to hold X-rays and other clinical tests at one stop to identify various ailments of milch cattle,” he said.

He informed about 1 lakh semen units have been imported to raise the best breed here. “As many as eight dairy development and expansion centres have been established in eight districts, now our aim is to set up such infrastructure in every 
district”, he said. 

Hoshiarpur, April 4
In response to a call by four Leftist parties, more than 1,000 activists of the CPM and the CPI will jointly gherao offices of the Central government on April 8 and will offer arrests in protest against the UPA government for its anti-people policies causing ever increasing price hike of essential commodities. This was stated by CPM district secretary Gurmesh Singh in a press release here recently.

He alleged the UPA government had failed in controlling the prices and had not taken any action against the hoarders and black marketeers who had stocked huge quantities of essential commodities and were now selling them at higher rates. This had badly hit the common man.

The CPM and CPI activists would pressurise the government to strengthen the distribution system of essential commodities, take action against the hoarders and black marketeers, unearth piled stock of essential goods and impose a ban on satta.