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State suffers Rs 480-cr loss due to flood fury
Crops on 1 lakh acres damaged in Patiala
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Threat of epidemic looms large in flood-hit villages
Bhattal seeks special Assembly session
Drainage Dept defunct for past 3 yrs: Cong
Funds for Ghaggar misused: Singla
Army help sought in plugging breaches
State MPs get a poor report card from Lok Sabha
Cong to bring out white paper on health, education
Illegal De-addiction Centre
Hyacinths choke Malwa’s irrigation system
Health centres sans blood storage units
Pizza, petroleum cash cows for state
VAT: Plan to mop up Rs 10,000 cr
Dr Chandan is Pbi varsity Dean Research
Paddy seeds being sold illegally: Farmers
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State suffers Rs 480-cr loss due to flood fury
Chandigarh, July 11 The Deputy CM accompanied by MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder visited flood-hit Sadhuwala and Phusmandi villages, besides reviewing relief operations at Sardulgarh. He promised to strengthen bandh on the Ghaggar, besides expediting relief operations. The Deputy CM also reviewed the flood situation in Roopnagar, Patiala, Sangrur, SAS Nagar, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. He announced that out of flood-hit 2.5 lakh acre farmland, the situation of crops was grave in 1.5 lakh acre. He said though water had started receding in certain parts of the state, but total crop loss to the farmers could touch Rs 480 crore, according to the initial estimates. Approving the plan prepared by Director Agriculture Balwinder Singh, the Deputy CM suggested that Agriculture Department should advise the farmers to sow short-maturity paddy varieties, rather than long-maturity paddy varieties. He said RH10 Hybrid gets matured in 110 days, Sugandh 2 and 3 take 120 to 125 days for maturing, whereas PUSA 44 ordinarily sown by the farmers takes 145-150 days for maturing. Badal said though Punjab would try to ensure that most of the land under the flood water could be retrieved and made productive for re-sowing the crops at the earliest, but sedimentation of the flood-hit land may affect one lakh acre land. Asking the Agriculture Department to encourage the farmers to go for alternate crops such as Moongi, Maize and Toria Sukhbir Badal said the Agriculture Department should ensure that traders did not charge exorbitant rates for seeds supplied to the flood-hit farmers. He also asked the Agriculture Department to make a plan for cotton belt of Mansa and Mour as flood water has started reaching in that area too. Expressing his solidarity with the flood-hit farmers, the Deputy CM announced that the state government would provide enhanced compensation to them. He said after assessing loss in special girdawari, the farmers, whose loss of crops was more than 70 per cent, would get Rs 5,000 per acre, whereas in case of loss between 50 to 70 per cent, the compensation would be Rs 3,000 per acre and for below 50 per cent loss compensation would be Rs 2,000 per acre. It may be added that 234 villages of Patiala, 200 villages of Ludhiana, 190 villages of Fathegarh Sahib, 58 villages of Roopnagar, 55 vilages of SAS Nagar and 26 villages of Sangrur districts have been affected by 32 breaches in Ghaggar and Tangri. According to the latest reports, 1,966 km of roads have been damaged and washed away in the floods. Meanwhile, 40 mm rain in Bhimpur, 27 mm in Madhopur in district Gurdaspur, 20 mm in Ropar, 28 mm in Adampur and 10 mm in Siswan was recorded during the last 24 hours. Water level in Bhakra was recorded at 1,551.43 feet, 17.56 feet above the last year level, whereas inflow in dam was 41,175 cusecs against 37,729 cusecs of the last year. The level of Pong dam was 20 feet above last year’s level, whereas inflow was recorded at 16,936 cusecs against 6,022 cusecs of the last year.
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Crops on 1 lakh acres damaged in Patiala
Devigarh (Patiala), July 11 “In Patiala district alone, cultivated land of about 1 lakh acres has been damaged due to floods,” said the DC Dipinder Singh. Officials said for Patiala, the Punjab Government had sent an aid of Rs 10 crore, which was being utilised for the repair of roads and other relief operations. During a visit to Mohalgarh village near the Tangri rivulet on the Haryana border, it came to light that 100-ft breach had virtually wreaked havoc in several villages of the Devigarh area. Villagers told The Tribune that another 600-ft breach in the Tangri rivulet in the Gorsian area of Haryana had caused the maximum damage in the area. “We have suffered so much damage due to the floods. It will take months to recover from the immense damage. It is surprising that every time the state government awakes from deep slumber when the damage has already been done,” said majority of affected villagers. Meanwhile, the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) has so far rescued 300 people from different villages. Interacting with the officials, it came to light that work to plug all breaches in the Ghaggar is being carried out on war footing. “Six-member relief committees have been constituted for accelerating the rescue operations. The teams would comprise officials of the Health, Animal Husbandry, Food and Civil Supplies and Revenue Departments and the Mandi Board,” said DC.
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Threat of epidemic looms large in flood-hit villages
Patiala, July 11 Since, a large chunk of the villages are still under several feet deep water, the villagers are extremely worried because the sewerage systems have been damaged, unhygienic conditions prevail everywhere and relief measures are not satisfactory. According to inhabitants of the most of the affected villages, there is immediate need to flush out the water from the villages, so that corpses of cattle could be disposed off. A visit to various affected villages brought to light that there have been cattle deaths in almost all flood-hit villages. “You could easily gauge that if the corpses of cattle will continue to remain in water for days, it will definitely lead to health hazard and spread various infections. The foul smell is already emanating from the water,” said Rattan Singh of Jassowal village in Samana. He further stated that though relief measures were on, but so far nothing was being done by the administration to ensure that corpses of cattle were taken out of the water. People of several other villages rued that during the past two days, they got eatables and water, but the medicines were not available with the medical teams deputed by the Health Department. “Instead of the chlorine tablets and ORS packets, the health teams were having folic acid in abundance. ORS packets is the most essential item in such circumstances to prevent dehydration,” said Jassas Behru, resident of village Adaltiwala in Devigarh area. Patiala civil surgeon Dr Sham Lal Mahajan claimed that mobile teams have been provided with medicines required during the emergency situation, besides the ambulances and every effort was being made to provide best healthcare to the affected villagers. Meanwhile, speaking to The Tribune, president of Patiala Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ravee Singh Ahluwalia said he has spoken to the Punjab Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, who has assured that his department would contribute in whatever manner it could to ensure that no epidemic spreads in the flood-affected areas.
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Bhattal seeks special Assembly session
Dharmendra Joshi/TNS
Jalandhar, July 11 Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal asked the Badal government that why the flood-affected people, especially in Munak subdivision of Sangrur district were being charged for providing them boats for ferrying their household items out of the affected areas or for providing relief to them. Bhattal accompanied by PPCC secretary Virendra Sharma and Jalandhar DCC (urban) chief Arun Walia said Rs 45,000 per boat had been charged and the money has been deducted from the Panchayat funds for providing boats to flood-affected people. The Congress demanded action against those responsible for this shameful act. Bhattal said the state government was demanding Rs 300 crore from the Centre against the loss caused to the flood-affected areas of the state, despite even assessing the same and was not utilising Rs 800 crore, given by the Centre, for the welfare of the farmers.
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Drainage Dept defunct for past 3 yrs: Cong
Patiala, July 11 Dakala MLA Lal Singh, Shutrana MLA Nirmal Singh, Ghanaur MLA Madan Lal Jalajpur and Samana MLA Brahm Mohindra have claimed that it was a sheer lack of preparedness by the Drainage Department that aggravated the flood situation in the state. Speaking to The Tribune, Lal Singh said, “No drain in the Ghanaur area has been cleansed from past three years. All our requests to the Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon for issuing directions for cleansing of drains to the Drainage Department have fallen on deaf ears.” He further asserted that had the drains been cleaned and proper embankments be made, the effect of the floods would have been of much less magnitude. “Before the monsoons, I had personally met Sekhon and requested for cleansing of the drains, especially Rasoli, Chambo and Ghaggar rivulet, passing through the Shutrana area. The minister assured work will be done in 15 days, but all promises remained on papers only,” he told TNS. Nirmal further said situation was extremely worse and Sapreri village in his constituency has been completely submerged in the water. He also said blame game by the politicians was not justified in this hour of crisis.
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Funds for Ghaggar misused: Singla
Bathinda, July 11 He alleged that embankments built with Central funds had failed the first test as several breaches had occurred due to the initial rains. He said the embankments built at Chandu and Mandvi in Sangrur out of Rs 135 crore provided by the Centre in the first phase had breached at many places.
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Army help sought in plugging breaches Sardulgarh (Mansa), July 11 Both left and right embankments have been breached due to a sudden rise in the water level and the bridge on the main road was also threatened. Flood has destroyed standing crops on about 1,500 acres and eight other villages were facing the threat of being flooded. Large tracts of land have been inundated under the floodwaters. Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul said he had requisitioned the Army in view of the looming threat of more villages coming in the grip of floods. Panic-stricken residents of about a dozen villages were trying to strengthen the earthen embankments by piling tractor-trolley loads of mud while the district authorities stood as a mute spectator. They accused the authorities of having ignored their complaints of the weakening embankments. A local resident, Jagdish Rai, said the river water had started gushing in the agriculture lands yesterday afternoon. The river water was touching the bridge that was built in 1960. The chief of the Dera Baba Haktala was himself supervising the protection works being carried out by the local residents to save the Sadhuwala village from being inundated. Standing crops of the farm of the Dera on 25 acres have been destroyed. The river waters have washed away fodder crop on 15 acres. Congress MLA Ajitinder Singh Moffar said he had several times raised in the Punjab Assembly the issue of the threat of floods in the Sardulgarh area but the government had done nothing. On the other hand, the river that was in spate was threatening more than two dozen villages near Chandpura village of Haryana touching Mansa. Police pickets have been established in the area as the river was flowing above the danger mark. Reports said there was panic among residents of the villages -- Juglan, Kularian, Kanghar, Chak Ali Sher, Gorakhnath and Birawala. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who flew in at Sardulgarh in the afternoon to assess the extent of damage, advised the opposition Congress party to desist from politicising the calamity of floods in the state. He said it was an unprecedented natural calamity for the people of Punjab as 2.5 lakh persons had been marooned due to floods. All political parties rather than playing politics should join hands in relief operations. Sukhbir said due to record rains of 144 mm in two hours and heavy inflow from catchments of the Ghaggar falling in Haryana, six districts of Punjab including Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, SAS Nagar, Roop Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib suffered extensive damage and the first priority of the government was to provide relief to the affected people. He ordered the district officials to expedite relief operations besides providing food, green fodder, medical facilities and chlorine tablets to the affected villagers. Sukhbir also visited two villages, Sadhuwala and Phusmandi of Sardulgarh, and advised the district administration to exercise extra vigil on the embankments of the Ghaggar especially in the village Mirpur Kalan , Mirpur Khurad , Sardulewala, Bhundar where there was threat of Ghaggar overflowing. Balwinder Singh Bhunder, MP, also accompanied Sukhbir.
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State MPs get a poor report card from Lok Sabha
Chandigarh, July 11 A scrutiny of the information shows that some of the MPs have not bothered to ask a single question while others have confined themselves to ‘larger’ issues of the treatment of Sikhs in Spain, Sharjah and Pakistan. Few of them have made effective interventions and memorable speeches, if delivered at all, have escaped public notice. Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Rattan Singh Ajnala and Ravneet Singh Bittu have asked 3, 17 and 18 questions, respectively. But they fall far short of the activist zeal displayed by Manish Tewari (93 questions) and Partap Singh Bajwa (47). Rahul Gandhi’s “chosen one”, Ravneet Bittu did manage to amble past the starter’s gate with three special mentions, ahead of Bajwa’s lone special mention, but still fell short of Tewari’s 9. Tewari also appears to be the only MP from the state to introduce a private member’s bill and the Congress spokesman participated in 15 parliamentary debates. Kaypee, Vijay Inder Singla and Sukhdev SinghLibra could not find the time for a single debate, closely followed by a reluctant Navjot Sidhu (1) and Bajwa (3) while Ravneet Singh and Ms. Harsimrat Badal, each participated in 4 debates. Dxuring the Zero Hour, Ravneet appeared concerned about the welfare of Indians living in Sharjah and Span and also about those living in the Kandi area. Harsimrat Kaur concerned herself with the killing of Sikhs in 1984 while Dr. Ajnala commented about Sikh affairs, the treatment of Indians and Sikhs in Pakistan as well as about the Indian Students’ safety in Australia. Santosh Chaudhary spoke about her own constituency Hoshiarpur during her sallies. Her participation under Rule 377 involved railway over bridges, polytechnic colleges and financial packages for her own constituency. Dr. Ajnala was found canvassing for the need to expedite the award of railway-wagons contract to a Rajasthani firm. Navjot Sidhu was seen in the company of Partap Bajwa championing the cause of granting heritage status to Amritsar. With the debates and statistics of the individual performance of each MP being freely available on TV, Lok Sabha website as well as through the RTI Act, the MPs clearly need to get their acts together.
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Cong to bring out white paper on health, education
Chandigarh, July 11 The pradesh party general secretary and media in charge, Parminder Singh, has appealed to the MPs, MLAs and party office-bearers to collect information about the lack of doctors, paramedics and medicines in the hospitals and teachers and other infrastructure in the schools at the village level and send it directly to the PPCC headquarters or through the district presidents within one month. Parminder Singh said schools were without teachers and hospitals without doctors. The situation had come to such a pass that even school students were resorting to agitation, demanding adequate facilities. He said these facilities mainly cater to the people from the weaker sections who cannot afford the high cost of private schools and hospitals. The Congress leader said not only the basic facilities were lacking, but also the district hospitals were without trauma centres. In case of accidents, the victims had to be rushed to private hospitals. He said the state government had failed to recruit teachers, doctors and paramedics during the first three years of its rule. He said the situation was the worst in the Malwa belt where the incidence of cancer and other serious diseases was very high.
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Illegal De-addiction Centre
Moga, July 11 A three-member panel of the commission comprising KK Bhatnagar, LR Roojam and Justice Baldev Singh has also sent a copy of this notice to the ADGP of the Internal Vigilance-cum-Human Rights Commission, the Principal Secretary and the Director of the state Health Services and Family Welfare Department for information and compliance of the commission’s orders. The Tribune had highlighted that contrary to the guidelines framed by the state, the district administration, particularly the police and health departments, have adopted an insensitive attitude towards the illegal detention and solitary confinement of 24 youths in the lock-up of an unauthorised drug de-addiction centre being run by a local society in Ghal Kalan village in Moga district. Even as senior officials of the district administration admit that the centre is running illegally, instead of taking legal action against the persons running the centre, the district administration has rather given protection to them under “political pressure” of local SAD leaders. — TNS
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Hyacinths choke Malwa’s irrigation system
Ferozepur, July 11 The major irrigation channels of the region, which have been adversely affected due to high concentration of the hyacinths, included Sirhind Feeder, Rajasthan Feeder, Ferozepur Feeder and Abohar canal apart from their distributaries. The problem caused by hyacinths has reached to a point where it has caused breach in Arniwala distributary twice in the past few days and caused damage to its about 200-feet-long bank. The threat to the banks of other channels by the hyacinths is equally severe. “Due to deposition of the hyacinths in canals, distributaries and minors of irrigation system in unprecedented large quantity this season, we have been finding it difficult to run channels according to their respective capacities, said a section of irrigation department officials. Executive Engineer, Abohar, Ramesh Kumar Gupta said water in all channels falling in Abohar division, was flowing at 60 per cent of their capacities due to chocking of their flow by the hyacinths. Even in certain channels, the water flow had been brought down to 38 per cent of their capacities to avoid damage to their banks. He added the villages, which were located at the tail ends of the different channels, were not getting adequate canal water for irrigating their paddy fields. Executive Engineer, Sirhind feeder and Ferozepur Feeder canals, Prem Kumar pointed out that the situation was being kept under observation and necessary steps were being taken to keep the flow of water in these two important channels of this region intact by clearing the hyacinths fast. “We have sent SOS message to the state government asking it to arrange required funds to use the same for clearing the hyacinths from different channels,” pointed out superintendent engineer (SE), Irrigation, Ferozepur, Baljit Singh Sandhu, who made on the spot assessment of the problem by visiting various channels today. “We have pressed men and machines into service almost at every channel and the flow has been restricted by the hyacinths, so that problem can be stopped from taking an ugly turn,” he pointed out. Chief engineer, irrigation, Punjab, Amarjeet Singh Dullet disclosed that after he took up this matter with deputy chief minister, Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal, he (Badal) directed all Deputy Commissioners concerned to release funds at the earliest under the head of natural calamity funds to the irrigation department officials wherever required to deal with the situation.
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Health centres sans blood storage units
Jalandhar, July 11 Setting up of BSUs at such health centres was one of the most important components of the mission, which was introduced nearly two years ago in the state. The mission has cited the lack of timely availability of pure blood during such emergency conditions as the major reason behind maternal deaths in rural areas.
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Pizza, petroleum cash cows for state
Jalandhar, July 11 Pizza Huts and other high-end eateries are said to be contributing a staggering Rs 60 crore as VAT to the state treasury while the collection from the 6 McDonald’s outlets is said to be in the region of Rs 2 crore, with the drive-in outlet at Jalandhar making the highest contribution. Opening of shopping malls and retail outlets and their computer-generated bills have also proved a boon for the state treasury. Chances of tax evasion even on grocery items is vastly reduced at these outlets, explained an official. While the SAD-BJP government did back the Bharat Bandh last week to protest against the hike of petroleum products, like other states Punjab too appears to be benefitting from the higher tax collection. State’s revenue from VAT( Value Added Tax), charged on prices of various commodities, has doubled during the last four fiscal years. It was Rs 5,050 crore in 2006-07 but during this fiscal year the state actually hopes to exceed the target of collecting Rs 10,000 crore. Indeed, at the end of June the collection was pegged at Rs 2,700 crore, which is 26% more than the first quarter’s collection last year. Collection from the sale of petroleum products alone is expected to increase by over Rs 300 crore in the state. Sources said that last year the VAT collected from the sale of petroleum products was Rs 1,500 crore but judging by the growing demand and the higher prices, the collection this year is expected to top Rs 1,800 crore. There has been 29 per cent increase in the price of petrol and 26 per cent in the price of diesel during the past one year or so. In the entire country, Rs 1,82,000 crore was generated last year as tax revenue from the sale of petroleum products and Rs 96,000 crore out of it was pocketed by the states. Significantly, Punjab charges 33.5 per cent VAT, octroi etc. on petrol, possibly the highest in the country. The consumption of petrol and diesel in the state continues to grow. Officials expect about 3 per cent growth in the consumption of petroleum products this year. There is a flip side to the growth story though. Petrol is largely used in private transport and not so much for productive purposes while diesel is used more in agriculture, industry and in public transport. The state government’s projection is that the collection from the farm sector this year will not exceed last year’s figure of Rs 1,000 crore, largely because of the shortfall in the production of wheat.
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VAT: Plan to mop up Rs 10,000 cr
Amritsar, July 11 That the Excise and Taxation Department will not spare tax evaders has already been made clear by it by the issuance of notices to over 1,200 traders in the state for allegedly evading VAT. What has made the task of tightening the noose around so many “evaders” possible was the use of the latest software by the department for simultaneously detecting fudging and “mismatches” in the sale-purchase records. “We have issued 1,200 notices to traders for VAT evasion. Besides the no-nonsense approach adopted by our officials, the software has helped us in a big way in the detection of duty evasion. What we have done this time to ensure proper VAT collection was to procure the records of sale and purchase of traders and subject these to scanning. This, subsequently, revealed the hiding of sale and purchase records and the practice of bogus billing adopted by some traders,” said A.Venu Parsad, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, while talking to The Tribune here.
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Dr Chandan is Pbi varsity Dean Research
Patiala, July 11 According to information, Dr SP Singh, Professor in the Human Biology Department of the university, has been appointed as the Additional Dean Research, at Punjabi University, Patiala. Both Dr Chandan Singh and Dr SP Singh have vast and experience in research. Their research papers have been published which have received appreciation. While Dr Chandan Singh has served as the Dean Faculties of Engineering and Technology and of Physical Sciences,Punjabi University, Dr SP Singh is serving as the Dean Faculty of Life Sciences at Punjabi University, Patiala.
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Banur-Landra road reopened
Banur, July 11 Commuters had to travel several kilometers extra and face inconvenience due to pot-holed roads of Chilla and Manauli villages. Harnek Singh, a resident of Mohali, said he had a harrowing experience on Banur-Landran road last night. He alleged that there was no signboard on Banur-Landran road and only after he had travelled over 15 km extra that he realised that the road ahead was blocked. Meanwhile an official of the Central Works Division, Ajit Pal Singh Brar, told The Tribune that it would take another two months for the work to get completed. “We will install the signboards marking diversions at various routes for the convenience of commuters,” he said, adding that anyone travelling on this stretch, especially during rains, should enquire before hand if the road is open or not.
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Paddy seeds being sold illegally: Farmers
Rajpura/Sirhind, July 11 Farmers rued that paddy seeds were not available in markets and those having the seeds were selling them at exorbitant prices. Chief Agriculture Officer at Fatehgarh Sahib Sarabjit Kandhari said instructions had been passed to all seed-sellers not to blow up the prices of seeds. “Senior officials of the Agriculture Department have asked us to identify such sellers so that cases could be registered against them and their license should be cancelled,” he said. He added that such few sellers in the areas in and around Patiala had been identified and had been told to provide paddy seeds to the flood-affected farmers at economical prices. While the flood-affected farmers who are now re-sowing the paddy crop have demanded free seeds. The farmers alleged that the prices of late sowing varieties, including PUSA-44, PUSA-1121 and other basmati varieties were not available in any blocks of Fatehgarh Sahib. Seed-sellers from Amloh, Khamano, Bassi Pathana and Sirhind blocks are suggesting the farmers to purchase paddy seeds from Rajpura. The prices of these varieties were available in the market at Rs 30 per kg a few days ago but it has increased to Rs 45 to Rs 55 per kg following heavy rains. Prices of hybrid varieties have also witnessed an increase as earlier 3-kg packet of a hybrid variety was available at Rs 400 but now it costs Rs 500. Beerinder Singh, a farmer from Sirhind, said two to four acres crop of marginal farmers in Fatehgarh Sahib got completely damaged. “As compared to the farmers in the Ghanaur, Rajpura and Khanauri areas of Patiala, the damage is partial in Fatehgarh Sahib as only 10 to 15 per cent of the total area under paddy is perished here,” he said.
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Sukhbir Singh Badal today approved contingency plans for flood-hit farmers, as two more breaches in Ghaggar near Makroad and Chandu and one breach in Narwana Canal marooned 2.5 lakh-acre farmland affecting three lakh people of 763 villages of the state.
Even as huge blockage caused by hyacinths at various points in irrigation channels in major part of the Malwa region has disturbed their functioning apart from causing breaches, the Irrigation Department authorities have sent SOS messages to the state government to provide required funds to deal with the situation.
Jalandhar, July 11
