State govt fixes prices of sugarcane varieties
Chandigarh, January 7
The Punjab Government has fixed the State Agreed Prices (SAP) of the advanced, medium and late varieties of sugarcane at Rs 230, Rs 225 and Rs 220 per quintal for the crushing season of 2011-12.

Ferozepur/Abohar, January 7
While 11 members of the Zila Bachao Sangharsh Committee, Ferozepur, have started a chain fast in front of the Deputy Commissioner office to press the state government not to initiate any move to bifurcate Ferozepur district by carving out Fazilka as a district out of it, representatives of various organisations of Abohar, under the banner of the Sacha Morcha, staged a dharna in front of the SDM office for acceptance of the demand of granting district status to their subdivision.

Members of the District Bar Association, Ferozepur, along with representatives of different organisations, including trade bodies, today took out a march to lodge their protest against the proposed move of the Punjab Government to bifurcate Ferozepur district. They also jammed traffic at the Sher Shah Wali Chowk for hours together.

KD Syal, president, District Bar Association, Ferozepur, and convener, Sangharsh Committee, said their agitation would continue till the state government gave them assurance that Ferozepur would not be bifurcated.

On the other hand, representatives of various organisations, including the members of Bar Association, Abohar, today staged a dharna in front of the SDM office demanding that Abohar must be elevated to district without delay.

A section of SAD, BJP and Congress leaders, including Vijay Laxmi Bhadu, chairperson, Punjab Social Welfare Board; Gurtej Singh, MLA, Balluana; Sanjeev Godara, political adviser, SAD; Sandeep Rinwa and Sandeep Jakhar also joined the agitation. Rajnit Phore, secretary, Bar Association, Abohar, said the organisations fighting for the district status for Abohar had formed a Sacha Morcha comprising 15 members.

The morcha, led by NK Garg, president, Bar Association, would conduct the agitation. He said tomorrow the city would observe a bandh and the morcha would carry out a protest march across the town. Later, the morcha would stage a dharna at the Nehru garden of the town. The agitation would continue till the government accept their demand.

FAZILKA: The situation in this town became tense after a resident of Muthianwali village climbed a water tank and threatened to commit suicide if the state government failed to accord district status to Fazilka. However, before the situation could take an ugly turn, a team of policemen, along with other residents, managed to persuade him to come down.

The town observed complete bandh for the third day today on the call given by the Beopar Mandal, Fazilka. Only chemist shops and vegetable shops were opened.

Mohinder Partap Dhingra, chairman, Improvement Trust, Fazilka, today joined Surjit Jiyani, BJP MLA, and Charan Singh, president, SAD, Fazilka circle, in their fast unto death, which entered into the third day today.

However, Tikshan Sud, Forest Minister, Punjab, and Rajesh Bagha and Manjeet Singh Rai, both senior leaders of the BJP, who reached this town as representatives of the state government and the BJP, respectively, to take stock of the situation, said things had been moving in right direction as Badal had constituted a subcommittee in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Beopar Mandal has decided to continue its bandh tomorrow also.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Union Food Ministry today allowed an increase in damaged grain from the earlier 3 per cent to 4 per cent for Punjab rice shellers but with the rider that the value of this relaxation would be deducted from the price of rice milled by the shellers.

The millers have rejected the “relaxation,” saying making it subject to full value cut defeated the very purpose of providing relief to the millers.

Rice shelling is at a standstill in Punjab with the millers demanding a relaxation in the specifications both on account of damage and discolourment. The millers have been demanding that the present criterion allowing a 3 per cent relaxation in both damage and discoloured grain be raised to 4 per cent. The Centre today decided to give a concession of 4 per cent in the case of damaged grain but the specification for discoloured grain stays at 3 per cent.

The millers today said the imposition of a value cut in the price of rice meant the price of milled rice would be reduced by Rs 17 to Rs 18 per quintal. They said since the state government had spent money to procure the paddy for the Centre, it would now be burdened with rice with a lower value. The millers claimed the state government agencies would shift this loss to them, which was not acceptable.

State rice millers’ association president Tarsem Saini, while talking to TNS, said Punjab rice was being given a relaxation of 4 per cent under the damage criterion for the last four years. He said other states were being given this concession, adding Punjab was being denied the same as the Centre did not need rice at present and also wanted to discourage Punjab farmers from cultivating paddy.

With the imbroglio between the rice millers and the Centre set to prolong, the issue of storage of foodgrains is set to become even more serious. Paddy is being stored in godowns and needs to be milled quickly to make way for storage of the next wheat crop. Only three lakh tonnes of paddy has been milled till now. As much as 90 lakh tonnes of paddy is waiting to be milled and any delay in the same would result in further deterioration of its quality.

Meanwhile, the rice millers’ association has appealed to the state government to take up the issue of revoking the clause of value cut with the Centre immediately. Saini claimed the milling industry was in bad shape due their inability to mill the PAU 201 variety of paddy last year as per FCI specifications. He said even though PAU 201, which was prone to breakage, had been banned this year, the FCI had blacklisted 271 shellers for not being able to mill this variety. Saini demanded that other parties should be allowed to run these shellers to ensure milling did not suffer in the state.

Fazilka, January 7
Surjit Jiyani, local BJP MLA, who along with two other leaders is on fast to put pressure on the Punjab Government to accord district status to this border town, today expressed disappointment over the attitude of a section of the state party leadership in connection with the demand.

“Had a section of the BJP leadership taken up the issue connected with district status for Fazilka in the initial years of the SAD-BJP government, Fazilka could have been a district by now,” said Jiyani while talking to TNS in the Clock Tower area here, where he is on an indefinite fast.

“I took up the matter of district status to Fazilka in the Vidhan Sabha time and again but it was ignored by those who were supposed to take notice of it,” he claimed, adding that his fast would continue till the government accorded district status.

He declared that he had all respect for Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Manoranjan Kalia. He had great hopes from these leaders that they would respect the sentiments of the residents of Fazilka and its surrounding towns and villages. He, however, failed to come out with a convincing answer when asked why he had not launched an agitation in the past four years for getting district status for Fazilka.

“Going on fast was the last resort for me when all other channels to get district status for Fazilka were exhausted. I have taken this step against the wishes of my party leadership as I want to make any sacrifice for this,” he pointed out, adding he would abide by the decision of the Sanjha Morcha, which had been organising the agitation.

When asked what would make him end his fast, he said an announcement by the Punjab Government that Fazilka would be elevated to a district in a fixed time period would be adequate for ending the agitation.

He claimed the elevation of Fazilka to a district was on the agenda of the BJP leadership before last Assembly elections but the demand could not be pursued in a proper manner by a section of the party leadership.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Punjab Government has fixed the State Agreed Prices (SAP) of the advanced, medium and late varieties of sugarcane at Rs 230, Rs 225 and Rs 220 per quintal for the crushing season of 2011-12.

In another decision, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked private sugar mill owners to stop the malpractice of poaching sugarcane outside the reserved areas allotted to them. It was also approved unanimously at the meeting to impose a penalty of Rs 10,000 per trolley on mill owners for purchasing sugarcane outside their reserved areas.

The Chief Minister also agreed in principle to allow a subsidy of 25 per cent on the purchase of cane harvesters under the Rashtri Krishi Vikas Yojana to three cooperative and six private sugar mills. Initially, Badal allowed the mill owners to purchase one such cane harvester on an experimental basis, and subsequently they could go in for two such harvesters.

Meanwhile, the BKU, Punjab, in a joint press note issued by Bhupinder Singh Mann and Baldev Singh Mianpur condemned the decision of the government to impose a penalty on sugar mills.They said the Badal government had forged an alliance with sugar mill owners against the interests of the farmers of the state to monoplise the purchase of sugarcane by a single sugar mill in the area.Now the farmers would be “bonded” and at the mercy of a single sugar mill.

The farmers’ leaders also rejected the increase of SAP by Rs 30 announced for the 2011-2012 season. The revision of SAP does not cover the inflation factor and increase in the cost of cultivation, machinery, labour,diesel,etc, they said.The BKU demanded the reversal of the decisions.

Jalandhar, January 7
The Bharti Kisan Union (Rajewal) has strongly reacted to the letter written to it by the Union Agriculture Ministry with regard to the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy and wheat.

In a letter to BKU president Balbir Singh Rajewal, Additional Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture PK Srivastava has stated that “the MSP of paddy for 2010-11 of Rs 1,000 per quintal provides reasonable return over the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) projected cost of Rs 762 per quintal in Haryana, Rs 566 per quintal in Punjab”.

The letter further says: “Similarly, the MSP of wheat of Rs 1,120 per quintal in 2010-11 provides reasonable return over the CACP’s projected cost of production of Rs 737 per quintal in Haryana and Rs 801 per quintal in Punjab.”

The letter is in response to the BKU’s memorandum recently submitted to the office of the Prime Minister and the Union Agriculture Ministry seeking the upward revision in the MSP of paddy and wheat and also on several issues related to the farm sector.

In a riposte to the letter, Rajewal has written to the Prime Minister conveying that the farming community has been saddened and hurt by such an irrational response from the Union Agriculture Ministry.

“The grounds adopted by the CACP to recommend the fixation of the MSP of paddy and wheat are far from reality. The prevailing annual lease rate of per acre in Punjab and Haryana is about Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000. By counting this single factor related to lease, the cost of production on one quintal of wheat works out to be Rs 800 per quintal”, said Rajewal.

However, the CACP has worked out Rs 801 per quintal of cost of production, including all factors, such as cost of cultivation, expenses on the use of material inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, manures, irrigation charges, including cost of diesel, electricity, wages of family labour, other labour cost and expenses of use of machinery etc.

“The Centre is more bothered about industrial cost structure, effect on cost of living etc., and least concerned about providing remunerative price to small and marginal farmers,” said Rajewal.

“We are prepared for discussion with the Union Agriculture Ministry on the issue of fixing MSP of paddy and wheat to make it aware about the realities of the farm sector,” he said, adding that it was unfortunate that the Prime Minister had found no time till date to meet the BKU delegation, which had sought an appointment from it in November last.

Patiala, January 7
If rules of the Punjab government are followed, government officials would lose their right to visit hill stations. Though ignorant, the clerical staff of the state is yet to bring to the notice of the state bureaucracy that they cannot travel to two particular destinations which are still considered more than 36 hours away for a single journey.

Senior officers posted in Punjab are perturbed, given an old rule probably framed during the British regime in India still governing them and debarring them from visiting two prominent hill stations of the country. While the officers want respite, the government is almost ignorant of the rule that prohibits government officers to visit Kashmir without proper sanction.

According to the rules prescribed under the Punjab Civil Services Rules on casual and quarantine leave, no government employee can go on casual leave to a place beyond 36 hours recall. However, the rules further say the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police can go to Kullu in Himachal Pradesh or Kashmir without the express sanction of the government.

A government officer said this meant all officers who proceeded on leave to these two destinations in the past many years should expect a chargesheet or an explanation. “However, the rule is old and needs revision as motor cars and planes have replaced horses as a mode of travel,” he added.

A senior IAS officer said probably in earlier times coming back from Kullu or Kashmir was not possible within 36 hours and, therefore, the rule was made. “However, now we can easily come back from the US in 15-20 hours,” he told The Tribune.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal feigned ignorance about the said rule. “I have heard it for the first time,” he stated.

According to another interesting rule, the government employees can still claim 16 days of casual leave after being bitten by a rabid animal to “proceed to a centre or institute for anti-rabies treatment.” The government probably still considers that the anti-rabies treatment is available at far-off places and employees need days to get it. The state government employees might be claiming that as well. 

Bathinda, January 7
After taking mass casual leave from their respective offices in various parts of the state, members of the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU) today held a rally in the stadium at Lambi (Muktsar) in support of their demands.

The demands include the grant of Rs 10300-34800 pay scale to clerks in the light of the enhanced educational qualifications for the post.

State president of the PSMSU Darshan Singh Bajaj told TNS that the Muktsar Deputy Commissioner and the SSP conveyed a message of the Punjab Chief Minister to the protesters for holding a meeting with the union. The meeting had been fixed for January 12 at the residence of the Chief Minister in Chandigarh, he added.

Bajaj said that in view of the invitation, the union had convened a meeting of the state body on January 16 in Ludhiana to take stock of the situation arising after the talks with the Chief Minister. He said in case no fruitful results emerged, they would draw up an agitation programme on January 16.

Ropar, January 7
Three officers and 13 employees from the various government departments were found absent during a surprise check conducted by ADC Sukhwinder Pal Singh Mrar here today. He also recommended requisite action against the absent officials.

Mrar conducted surprise checks of the offices of Deputy Director (Fisheries), Deputy Registrar (Cooperative Societies), Assistant Registrar (Cooperative Societies), mid-day meal branch, district Ayurvedic office, animal husbandry department, district education officer (secondary as well as elementary), district food supplies office and excise and taxation offices.

During checking, Deputy Director (Fisheries) Amarjit Singh, Deputy Registrar (Cooperative Societies) RS Mann and district Ayurvedic officer Bakshish Singh were found absent from their offices.

Apart from them, junior assistant in the office of assistant registrar’s office Raj Kumari and superintendent Sharanjit Kaur, superintendent of office deputy registrar cooperative societies Bhupinder Kaur, clerk Ranbir Singh and steno Akbari Devi, from office of district Ayurvedic department superintendent Som Nath, Beena Mann and Uma Sharma were also found absent from their duties. Mrar said as per the attendance register of district Ayurvedic office, district Ayurvedic officer was absent on January 6 as well.

Entire staff of the mid-day meal branch, district education offices (secondary and elementary), district food supplies office and excise and taxation office were found present. He said that Deputy Commissioner Arunjit Singh Miglani has been forwarded the list of absent employees for further action.

Sirhind/Rajpura, January 7
Students of government schools, teachers and people from poor class are braving brunt of the cold wave this winter as mercury plummets amidst the freezing wind. While government school teachers have demanded extended winter vacation, roadside vendors and small-time shopkeepers rue that their earnings have reduced to almost zero.

“We fail to keep our pots boiling amidst chilling cold as there aren’t many customers,” said Mohammad Usman, a potter in Rajpura.

Sanjeet (43), a labourer, said he was without work for past one week. “I have been doing labour at construction sites for past 20 years and this is one of those rare winters when we have failed to get any work,” he said, adding that his family owned three buffaloes so they manage somehow, while situation of other labourers was pathetic.

Ravinder Joshi, principal of Ashoka Senior Secondary School, Sirhind, said the attendance was poor. “Private schools are shut due to winter, but our students, except primary classes, are forced to attend classes amidst chilling weather,” he said, adding that the students came from villages as far as 15 km and were suffering from cough, cold, sore throat and other problems. “The state government and the Education Department must think of students attending classes amidst intense cold conditions,” teachers said. 

Patiala, January 7
Balwant Singh, who has been awarded the death penalty in the former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh assassination case, today raised pro-”Khalistan” slogans in the district court complex here.

Balwant Singh was brought to the court under tight security from the Patiala Central Jail in connection with the hearing of a case pending against him pertaining to the recovery of RDX from him. The next date of hearing in the case has been fixed for January 28.

Balwant Singh suddenly started raising pro-”Khalistan” slogans in the court complex. Since the hearing of the case was over, the police personnel immediately took him away to the jail. Meanwhile, Balwant Singh handed over a copy of a letter to mediapersons today. The one-page letter, addressed to the Patiala Central Jail Superintendent, reads: “I would like to convey to you that I have already decided not to make any appeal in an Indian court for commuting my death sentence. I have no regret for what I did.” 

Ludhiana, January 7
Lure of foreign shores forced nine youths from Punjab to immigrate illegally to Malaysia, who not only ended up being debt-ridden but were also beaten up before they managed to escape from that country.

While two of them, Surinder Pal Singh (25) from Muktsar and Rajinder Singh(24) from Goraya, are still stuck in Kuala Lumpur, seven of them have returned home with a burden of debt.

Six youths, Karamjit Singh, Harpreet Singh, Satbir Singh, Sunil Kumar, Harmeet Singh, all from Ludhiana, and Gurpreet Singh from Raikot, today visited the Lok Bhalai Party office in the city and met its leader, Avtar Singh Mullanpuri, to get the remaining two rescued and get the travel agents booked.

Another youth, Raj Kumar from Jalandhar, who also flew back with these youths yesterday, could not make it to his office.

The youths said they were duped by two Ludhiana-based travel agents, who took Rs 1.5 lakh each from them, promising them a work permit in Kuala Lumpur. They flew on December 8 and when they landed there, their passports were taken away by the travel agents.

They were left to fend for themselves. It was then that they realised they were sent on a visitor's visa and had to return within a month, failing which they would have to undergo imprisonment or pay a hefty fine.

“My world crashed. My mother had sent me abroad by pledging our house on the Kakowal road here. I had promised to her that I would get the house freed within a few months. But there was something else in store for me. Now, I do not know where to go,”said Sunil Kumar.

Karamjit Singh said he had borrowed money from a financier. He carried Rs 50,000 with him. All that was spent when they stayed there for a month and then had to buy a return ticket. I have a debt of Rs 2 lakh,” he added.

The youths said they were beaten up before been handed over their passports and made to sign under oath that the travel agents were not at fault.”We gave this undertaking. Now, we don’t know whether these agents will be booked or not,” said Karamjit.