Bathinda, June 25
Hundreds of acres of standing cotton plants and paddy seedlings destroyed after 85 feet wide breach occurred in the Phul distributary at village Daulatpura late on Friday night.

Farmers of three villages, namely Chak Bakhtu, Gill Khurd and Daulatpura, of this district were at the receiving end as the administration apparently failed to check the free flow of water spoiling their crops till this afternoon.

The breach occurred after several trees got uprooted during last night's storm and fell in the distributary. The trees choked the flow of the distributary. Resultantly, it started overflowing and breached at its embankment near Daultapura village.

The distributary, which starts from Ballo village and runs up to Kot Shamir village, was reportedly carrying 180 cusecs of water before the breach.

Finding the water gushing into their fields early this morning, farmers immediately informed the irrigation department. But observing their delay in reaching the spot, farmers took the task in their hands and deployed several tractors to pull out the trees fallen in the distributary.

Later, on visiting the spot, irrigation officials urged the department to close the water flow from a dam located at some distance. Though the officials claimed to have brought the water supply level at nil in the evening, they could not start filling the breach.

Buta Singh of Chak Bakhtu village said his 50-acres got inundated and spoiled the recently-transplanted paddy and fodder for animals.

One Sikander Singh rued that after incurring a huge expenditure on labour, he had got paddy transplanted on 15 acres of his land, which got destroyed following the breach.

Refuting the allegations of delay, junior engineer of the irrigation department Harbhajan Singh said, “Soon after receiving the information, we had launched an operation to plug the breach with help of sand bags.”

Bathinda, June 25
Due to fluctuation in temperature and change in climate besides other factors, the area under grape crop has reduced to 284 hectares this year from 506 hectares in the year 2000 in Bathinda district. Thus, area under the crop fell nearly 44 per cent in a decade.

On the other hand, the area under kinnow crop in the district has increased five times during the past decade, as the area under kinnow crop was only 570 hectares in 2000 while now, it is 2,888 hectares.

Marketing of the produce in absence of processing units in the district like wine factory, grape juice small plants, grape candy factory etc, is one of the other main reasons that led to the fall in area under grapes. Further, grapes have a short shelf life and can be kept in cold storage for 15 to 20 days only while kinnow can be stored for more than a month.

It is reported that in Bathinda district, a majority of grape growers grow “perlet” variety of grapes. Grape crop matures in quite a short time (about three months) while its per-acre production is about 12 metric tonnes.

Talking to TNS here today, Bathinda Block Horticulture Development Officer (HDO) Narinderjit Singh said that now, the main areas of grape crop in the district were Maur block (185 hectares), Talwandi Sabo block (44 hectares) and Nathana block (18.3 hectares). Besides, the grapes were also being grown in Sangat, Bathinda and Rampura Phul blocks.

He said though a grape grower earned about Rs one lakh per acre, the area under grape crop had been reducing in the district on account of various reasons.

The official said that now, area under kinnow cultivation was 1,211 hectares in Maur block, 588 hectares in Talwandi Sabo block, 441 hectares in Bathinda block, 432 hectares in Sangat block, 108 hectares in Nathana block etc. He said a kinnow grower though earned Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh per acre but he preferred planting it because it was less risky as compared to grapes.

Dhelwan (Mansa), June 25
The branch post office (BPO) functioning in a grocery shop in this remote village of the Mansa district has a piled up stock of stamps and postcards that are lying unsold, as the rural folk have switched over to communicating through mobile phone.

Ram Kumar, owner of the shop and an extra departmental employee of the postal set up, said today that postal requirements of the village folk have changed over the years. They prefer sending mail through speed post instead of the traditional postcard or stamped envelope. The ordinary post that he mostly delivers these days is notice of insurance companies and banks to customers.

The BPO opened by Ram Kumar 20 years ago caters to the postal requirements of the neighbouring three villages. Earlier, he had to pedal through these villages delivering letters, but now people prefer talking to their contacts on mobile phone instead of writing letter, he says.

He says that residents of these villages have opted for postal bank accounts, recurring deposit and postal life insurance. Besides, the BPO maintains account of 375 beneficiaries of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that keeps him busy throughout the day.

However, introduction of the speed post a few years ago by the postal department has generated more work in the BPO, as he has to rush to deliver these packets. He has to deliver four to five speed post articles every day for which he is not paid any commission. He also collects telephone bills of subscribers of the area.

Ram Kumar says that he is paid Rs.5800 per month for running the BPO for three hours per day, but practically he works for the postal department from morning to evening when his shop remains open.

He laments that the department does not issue postal stationery to him as a result of which he has to get photocopies of different forms made out of his own pocket to avoid inconvenience to the customers.

Traditional mode of communication takes a backseat!

Owner of a grocery shop and an extra departmental employee of the postal set up in Dhelwan village said postal requirements of the village folk had changed over the years. They prefer sending mail through speed post instead of the traditional postcard or stamped envelope

Ferozepur, June 25
The Anti Narcotics Task Force, which would strengthen its campaign against drugs tomorrow to mark the occasion of the International Day Against Drug Abuse by holding rallies, seminars, nukad nataks at the police station level, has got reasons to rejoice over its functioning.

While the constant monitoring and coordination of anti-smuggling operations has cut down the supply of narcotics to consumers drastically, the conviction rate of those involved in smuggling have witnessed a respectable rise.

Official sources revealed that about 15 years ago, the conviction rate was around 7-10 per cent.  Due to strict monitoring of the case, it started going up and managed to put behind a large number of smugglers behind the bars for years together.

The conviction rate witnessed a significant jump in 2009 after the setting up of Anti Narcotics Task Force as it touched 49.58 per cent. Moreover, the number of smugglers being arrested every year had also been showing upward trend.

“Recoveries of narcotics made in Punjab in the past few years have shown that supply of narcotics to the consumers has been curtailed drastically.  Had these recoveries not been made by the narcotics cells of the Punjab police, the consignments of narcotics could have reached the users,” claimed RP Meena, Inspector General, Anti Narcotics Task Force, Punjab.

The interstate smugglers were on run. They had been finding new routes to push narcotics in Punjab. However, exchange of information with neighbouring states, the BSF and other agencies and effective coordination had been defeating the designs of smugglers for the past about two years, he added.

The purpose behind sharpening and strengthening campaign against the smugglers by holding rallies, seminars and other functions was that the Anti Narcotics Task Force wanted to bring awareness in the society at the grassroot level to make every right thinking citizen of Punjab as policemen for unscrupulous elements to curb their illegal activities.

“With negligible support from any section of society and with more information coming to the police authorities in connection with the activities of smugglers, they could be isolated and could be caught before they execute their nefarious activities,” said Meena, adding that PS Gill, DGP, Punjab Police, would preside over a state-level function organised in this connection tomorrow at Nawan Shahar.

He said the cases pertaining to the forfeiture of properties owned by smugglers were being handled seriously.

Bathinda, June 25
The Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM) today criticised the health authorities of Faridkot for issuing notice to the Baba Farid Center for Special Children (BFCSC) for providing all record pertaining to their functioning.

The health department has constituted a five-member team to probe into the functioning of the BFCSC that was claiming to possess expertise to detoxify children from presence of uranium.

Executive director of KVM Umendera Dutt in a statement accused the Faridkot health authorities of “harassing” officials of the BFCSC instead of tackling the problem of environmental toxicity.

BFCSC has done a noteworthy work by unearthing the issue of depleted uranium toxicity and other heavy metals contaminating our eco-system and environmental health impacts caused by these toxins, Dutt added.

Bathinda, June 25
Senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chaudhary Swarna Ram, who holds the portfolio of technical education, social security and development of women and children, today said there wasn’t a revolt like situation among workers of the SAD-BJP alliance but admitted prevalence of resentment among his colleagues for being discriminated by the government.

In an exclusive interaction with TNS at local circuit house this evening, Swarna Ram said, “It is totally wrong that the SAD-BJP alliance was on the rocks and we would revolt against our alliance,” adding, “We just want the equality in the development of the rural as well as urban areas. We won’t mind if the chief minister showers largesse on rural areas where the SAD claims to be better positioned. We only want a similar treatment to the urban areas represented by the BJP as well.”

On the issue of pension, Swarna Ram said, “We have cleared the backlog of all pensions till June. Instead of quartely basis, the pensions will be released every month.”

Abohar, June 25
An “unpleasant” situation developed at the police-public meet, chaired by IG Rohit Chaudhary here on Friday, when the district BJP president Arun Narang sought to convey that the police had been “soft” in intercepting/checking the cars that displayed portraits of militants.

Over Narang's statement, Buta Singh, who was elected as SAD rebel in the municipal council elections but later joined the BJP, regretted that those who talked of Hindu-Sikh unity, had not in fact changed their mindset.

Buta Singh said that he would take the matter up with the BJP high command.

IG Rohit Chaudhary said the advisory committee will meet each month to address the grievances of the public.