Biz tycoons park their planes at Amritsar airport
Amritsar, March 30
Many business tycoons, who came to see the India-Pakistan semifinal of the cricket World Cup at Mohali, had to park their chartered planes at Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport due to a dearth of space at the Chandigarh airport.

India-Pak Semifinal
State offices wear deserted look
Sarabjit’s sister makes bid to meet Gilani
Chandigarh, March 30
In sharp contrast to the electrifying atmosphere in Mohali, most of the Punjab government offices and establishments wore a near-deserted look as most of the politicians, bureaucrats and employees of the state government took time off to watch the World Cup semifinal match between Indian and Pakistan.

Ferozepur, March 30
Bags of wheat worth more than Rs 5 crore were today found missing from godowns of Markfed during the verification of the same by special teams. These godowns are being managed by a private company.

Official sources said the Markfed authorities had instructed various teams, led by senior functionaries, to carry out the verification of its godowns located in the Guru Harsahai, Fazilka and Makhu areas, where over 30 lakh bags of wheat were stored.

Though the process of the verification is expected to be completed by tomorrow evening, preliminary reports have revealed that so far, about 1 lakh bags of wheat are missing. The total number of missing bags would be worked out by tomorrow.

Sources said the authorities had been pressurising the owner of the private company to make up for the loss. And if the owner concerned failed to do this, action would be taken against him.

A senior official of Markfed said the verification of these godowns was also carried out nearly five months ago and wheat was missing at that time too. However, the private party concerned had made payment in cash to make up for the loss caused to Markfed on account of missing wheat.

He said the private company, which was handling the storage of wheat, was also bound to deliver the same to the Food Corporation of India.

He said any field official found responsible for causing loss to Markfed would be taken to task. Initial reports had also revealed that the private company owner had employed “innovative methods” to make the bags disappear from the godowns.

The bags of wheat that are missing belonged to crop years of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Whether the authorities would lodge a complaint against the private company concerned or not could not be known so far.

Chandigarh, March 30
In sharp contrast to the electrifying atmosphere in Mohali, most of the Punjab government offices and establishments wore a near-deserted look as most of the politicians, bureaucrats and employees of the state government took time off to watch the World Cup semifinal match between Indian and Pakistan.

Even those with little interest in cricket took this opportunity to stay away from work. The Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat was virtually deserted after lunch.

For the bigwigs of the state, activity started early in the day after the VVIPs started arriving at Chandigarh. At the very top of the ladder, both Governors and Chief Minister of Punjab and Haryana were there to receive Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outside the reception gate of the PCA Stadium, Mohali. Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were joined by ICC president Sharad Pawar in welcoming the Prime Minister.

Offices of all Punjab ministers were deserted and even bureaucrats were conspicuous by their absence. Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal was at the Chandigarh Airport to receive Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and his team on behalf of the state government.

Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian national Sarabjit Singh languishing in a Pakistani jail, tried to meet Gilani as he arrived at the Taj Hotel. Security officials, however, did not allow her anywhere near Gilani saying a prior approval was required from the Pakistani side.

Those who did not dare to venture out, remained glued to their television sets.

Even the Punjab Police Headquarters bore a deserted look with most senior officers busy with the security arrangements. Many who had no role in sanitising the PCA Stadium were actually seen watching the match at Mohali. It was a rare occasion to see that even policemen on duty for manning the stands were seen being frisked by their own colleagues at the gates.

Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh and his wife Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Perneet Kaur were also seen welcoming and accompanying UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. Prior to their arrival, Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and his son had also joined the VVIPs at Mohali.

Though most people could not get a glimpse of the Pakistan Prime Minister, a huge television display in most part of the city and in the stadium brought alive the meeting between the two Prime Ministers.

“Most parts of the tricity, especially the routes leading to the Punjab Raj Bhawan and Mohali Stadium, witnessed unprecedented security. Security personnel from Haryana and Punjab dressed in special outfits were seen all over the city. These included personnel from the NSG, SPG and paramilitary forces. As many as 40 personnel of the special wing raised by the Punjab police were deployed to deal with any terror attack or hostage situation. In all, about 3,000 Punjab police personnel were deployed around the stadium that can accommodate a crowd of 30,000. 

Amritsar, March 30
Residents of Kot Khalsa village, who claim to have donated their land for setting up Khalsa College, today took to streets against the proposal to convert the institution into a private university.

The villagers took out a protest march and resorted to sloganeering against the governing council and its honorary secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina outside the college. Later, they submitted a memorandum to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and also distributed pamphlets giving a call to “Save Khalsa College” to the people along the route of their protest march.

The residents claimed that their ancestors had donated the land for construction of the college with an aim to spread education, particularly among weaker sections of society, while the money for building it came from Sikh princely states and landlords. They said the resolutions of the SGPC and the Chief Khalsa Diwan, seeking maintenance of status quo at the college, and the subsequent statement of the Jathedar in its support “provided succour to the well-wishers of the institution”. However, the volte-face made by SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar “has brought disrepute to the key post which he holds”. They alleged that an influential family wanted to turn the institution into its own property.

Led by Major MS Sarkaria, Sawinder Singh and Jasbir Singh Ghuman, the villagers dubbed the ad campaign launched by the governing council to clear the air on the proposal as “misleading”. They demanded that Makkar be summoned to the Akal Takht and asked to apologise. They also urged the Jathedar to appeal to the Chief Minister to save the institution. They said the Akal Takht should give a call for open debate between those supporting the proposal and the ones opposing it before formation of a university.

Meanwhile, the protesting college teachers have expressed their gratitude towards Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for putting off the decision regarding giving Cabinet nod to the university proposal.

Patiala, March 30
High-velocity winds accompanied by hailstorm and an incessant spell of rain for a couple of hours last night damaged the almost ripened wheat crop in villages across Patiala and surrounding areas. With farmers demanding a special girdwari, the administration may write to the government to look into their losses and order payment of adequate compensation.

Reports reaching the district headquarters said that the hailstorm had flattened standing wheat crop in numerous villages of the district with Patran, Devigarh, Nabha and Samana being the worst hit.

The authorities are worried about the procurement of wheat that is expected to start in a few days from now. “The crop will need some more time to dry up after these rains and at some places the wheat crop has flattened due to winds,” claimed an official of the Punjab Mandi Board.

According to Aagriculture Department officials, villages in the Shutrana, Patran, Baran, Darauli, Amloh, Nabha area are the worst hit where the standing crop has been damaged. “The entire report will be available with us in a few days,” they added.

For farmers in Devigarh, the rain has poured hell as almost the entire crop, standing near these fields, is flattened along with vegetables.

Meanwhile, some of the farmers who had already harvested a part of their wheat crop and were already in mandis for sale, said that the rain caught them unawares and their wheat was now wet.

Gurdeep Singh Mann adds from Fatehgarh Sahib: Hailstorm damaged wheat crop up to 50 per cent in different villages here on Tuesday night.

Officials of the Agriculture Department said that wheat crop from 10 to

50 per cent was damaged due to hailstorm backed by rain and high-speed

winds in different villages. Maximum damage has been done in 17 villages of Khera block where wheat yield up to 50 per cent is likely to reduce owing to the hailstorm.

Besides Khera block, villages falling under Bassi Pathana, Sirhind and Khamano blocks also got affected.

Rajnish, a farmer from Bora village under Khera block, said the entire crop

in his village and nearby areas got affected due to last night’s

high-speed wind and continuous rain. The crop got completely flattened. The grains of wheat crop were ripening at this stage.

Nasib Singh, a farmer from Sidhupur village, said farmers who had sown early wheat varieties were the most affected as their crop was nearly ripe.

Besides the yield would also reduce to mere five to 10 quintals in an acre instead of normal 20 acres, said the farmers. Once flattened, the wheat crop could not be harvested with combine

machines and is quite difficult to harvest manually. As a result, labourers charge more than double to harvest the flattened crop.

Paramjit Singh, a farmer from Jalvehri village, said cereals, vegetables and green fodder also got damaged in villages of Fatehgarh Sahib due to the hailstorm last night.

Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) Bhagwant Singh Walia admitted

that the hailstorm proved quite harmful for the wheat crop and the maximum damage was done to the early-sown varieties.

The ADO did not rule out probability of diseases in crop if rusty weather persists for the next couple of days.

Ludhiana, March 30
The state government has failed to take effective steps to check the spread of cancer in Punjab and the incidence has increased manifold in the past one decade. This was stated by Dr SS Johl, an agricultural economist and former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala.

A committee of experts had conducted an extensive study on cancer incidence in South West Punjab and had submitted its report in 2006, but nothing has been done so far. The committee comprised PAU scientists, oncologists from Mohan Dai Oswal Cancer Hospital (Ludhiana), Dr KK Talwar, Director, PGIMER (Chandigarh), and Dr SS Johl

“Despite repeated reminders, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has not initiated any dialogue on the issue,” said Dr Johl.

Dr Johl, also the chairman of the Cancer Council of India (CCI), an NGO working for the cause of cancer patients in the state, was here last evening to attend a lecture on rectal cancer (a part of large intestine).

Expressing dissatisfaction on the budgetary corpus of Rs 20 crore for cancer patients in Punjab, he said: “South West Punjab is ailing in terms of cancer incidence and a super-speciality cancer hospital in that belt is the need of the hour. Compensating people with money will not work and the government should set up a hospital wherein patients should get the facility of free diagnosis and treatment,” he added.

Dr Devinder Singh Sandhu, executive chairman of the CCI and oncologist at the DMCH, Ludhiana, said the NGO was creating awareness for prevention and the early diagnosis of the disease in cancer detection camps being organised across the state.

Dr Harmeet Kaur, a radiologist from MD Anderon Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (USA), said: “There are sub-specialists in the US to deal with this disease in specific parts of the body, whereas in India, a general oncologist is all. Thus, India should go in for super-specialisation in oncology,” she added.

Ropar, March 30
Kin of Avtar Singh, a resident of Solakhian village, staged a dharna outside the Civil Hospital here and beat up a computer operator posted at the hospital yesterday.

Avtar Singh was rushed to the Civil Hospital on Monday with severe stomachache and loose motions. His relatives alleged that when he was brought to the hospital in the evening, he had soiled his clothes and was in a bad shape.

They added that instead of attending to the patient, the nurse asked the relatives to bring him with changed clothes. In utter confusion, the patient was allegedly not attended to properly and he passed away by late evening.

Irate relatives yesterday staged a dharna at the hospital. They went to the office of a senior medical officer in a bid to talk to him. However, inside the hospital they had heated arguments with computer operator Mohan Singh, whom they beat up.

By evening, a board of three doctors was constituted to conduct the postmortem of Avtar’s body. A departmental inquiry would be conducted into the issue. 

Ropar, March 30
Ropar district administration have established a protection centre for runaway couples who have married against the wishes of their parents. Also, a special committee has been constituted to extend support to these couples, who can be provided better avenues of livelihood.

Deputy Commissioner AS Miglani would be the president of the committee, while the SSP and district public relations officer would be its members and social security officer would be the convener.

A protection centre for such couples has been established at the Youth Hostel, Ropar, where the couples can stay for a limited period of time.

The committee has been constituted following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court had directed all districts that the runaway couples should be provided with a safe haven.

The district police chief is supposed to counsel and make arrangements for providing better living conditions to such couples. It has also been directed that the police should not register false cases against the couple on behest of their parents.

Ropar, March 30
The in-charge of the Haripur police post, ASI Gajjan Singh, has been suspended for delaying inquiry into the case of sodomy of an eight-year-old boy from Jatwahar village.

On March 19, residents held a langar at Jatwahar village. Rakesh Kumar (21) took the child to his home on the pretext of serving him langar.

Later, he took the child to a secluded spot and sodomised him. Though the victim’s parents and relatives informed the police about the incident, no action was taken.

Villagers alleged the ASI of delaying investigations on behest of the accused’s family. When villagers brought the matter to the notice of police officials, on March 24 Rakesh Kumar was booked for sodomising the child. He was arrested and presented before the court and sent to two-day police remand.

Jalandhar, March 30
A day after the Cabinet approved the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for permanent employees of the closed cooperative sugar mills at Patiala, Tarn Taran, Faridkot, Jagraon and Zira, sugar mills’ employees from across the state today held a protest here and urged the state government to reconsider its decision.

They said the decision was against hundreds of seasonal, daily wagers and ad hoc workers as the Cabinet had decided to give this benefit only to permanent employees. Karnail Singh Lakhimpur, President of the Cooperative Sugar Mills Workers’ Federation, Punjab, said the decision had come as a double whammy for those permanent employees also who were now bound to take VRS 10-20 years prior to their scheduled retirement.

Demanding the inclusion of the running expenditure of all the sugar mills in the state’s budget provision, Lakhimpur said the government should follow the Haryana pattern and compensate the loss that sugar mills had to bear due to a difference in sugarcane prices fixed by the Central and the Punjab Governments.

“While Rs 140 per quintal has been fixed by the Centre, sugar mills in Punjab are purchasing sugarcane at Rs 220 per quintal. Moreover, the mills are also bound to sell sugar at a control price fixed by the Centre. Thus, a loss of Rs 80 per quintal should be borne by the state and not the mills,” he added. 

Rampura Phul (Bathinda), March 30
Despite getting a bumper yield, potato growers of the Malwa region are an unhappy lot this season as in the absence of purchasers, they are now trapped in a glut-like situation, where the government is lending no help to them.

In the absence of any solution to the problem, the growers have opted for storing potatoes in cold stores but that measure, too, has remained insufficient to serve the purpose.

As the production has crossed the total capacity of storage, especially in the Rampura Phul subdivision of Bathinda district, which is the second biggest potato-producing belt in Punjab after Jalandhar, the cold store owners have now started closing their doors.

“Initially the cold-store owners charged me Rs 40 per bag for the storage but within a couple of weeks the rate has been revised to Rs 65 per bag,” alleged a farmer, Harbhagwan Singh, who was waiting for his turn outside a cold store.

Potato grower Gurcharan Singh of Lehra Mohabbat, who had placed 2,400 bags of potatoes in a cold store, said nearly 400 bags were still lying loaded in trolleys for the past four days but no store was accepting them giving an excuse of running out of capacity.

“In such situation, I am left with just one option -- dump the potatoes by the roadsides -- with the hope that the government will come out of the deep slumber and take an account of the situation,” lamented Gurcharan Singh.

Meanwhile, a farmer Nath Singh of Lehra Bega village said, “Though I was unwilling, finding no option, I have started taking potatoes to the vegetable market, Rampura, to sell these in retail as a hawker.

On the other hand, president of the Cold Stores’ Union Jasvir Singh said, “We all were open for the storage but when the capacity crosses its limits, we are helpless.

Secretary of the market committee, Rampura Phul, Vijay Kumar said, “We are well aware of the glut-like situation but things are not in our control as the yield was bumper and the main purchasers, who belong to other states, did not turn up this season.”

Abohar, March 30
Even as cotton sowing season is to begin in April, industrialists have started urging the state government to make arrangements for enhancing the area under the crop. The owners of industries, which use cotton as raw material, are feeling the need of increasing the production of raw cotton in Punjab as the domestic demand is witnessing a jump in the past few years. 

The situation has reached a point where some of the units are left with no other option but to buy raw cotton from other states to meet with their demands. Bhagwan Bansal, president of the Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginners’ Association, said while consumption of raw cotton in the state had touched 70 lakh bales per annum, its production ranged between 18-20 lakh bales a year. “We have requested the state government to make arrangements so that area under cotton crop in the coming season can be increased to 7 lakh hectares from present 5.33 lakh hectares so that production of raw cotton can be taken to 30 lakh bales,” he said, adding that the government must also distribute BT cotton seeds among growers through Markfed.

Ashok Kapur, former president of the Northern India Cotton Association, said production of raw cotton in Punjab, Haryana and Sriganganagar circle of Rajasthan during 2010-11 would be less or equal to the production of raw cotton in the respective area in 2009-2010. This year, the cotton production was estimated around 38 lakh bales, which was almost equal to the production of raw cotton in the previous year.

However, the demand of raw cotton in these three states had gone up manifolds because of new industrial units had come up in the past few years. Moreover, capacity of such existing mills had been enhanced by their respective owners, he added. The prevailing market situation was that in these three states, the demand of raw cotton had crossed the quantity of raw cotton being produced every year. The situation had forced the industrialist to move to other cotton producing states like Gujarat and Andhra Pardesh to fetch raw material, he pointed out.

Sanjeev Godara, director of Punjab Mandi Board, said cotton growers, who had fetched remunerative prices for their produce this season, were willing to increase the area under cotton in the coming season if they were assured proper supply of BT Cotton seed .

Moga, March 30
Scientists have called upon medical scientists and pharmacists in particular to regulate the use of drugs to minimise their side affects and improve the quality of life.

They were addressing pharmacists and young scientists in the two-day national seminar on “Rational Use of Drugs and Clinical Trials” organised at the Indo-Soviet Friendship College of Pharmacy here, this week.

Dr SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, stressed on the need for appropriate use of drugs in terms of dose and right combination.

Dr PL Sharma, an eminent scientist in the field of clinical research, said that more than 50 per cent of the medicines prescribed to the patients across the globe were being used irrationally because of lack of public awareness.

Dheeraj Mittal, who is doing his master’s degree in pharmacology, said erythropoietin not only increased the RBC (Red Blood Cell) count but it also reduced cardiac injuries during a bypass surgery.

On this occasion, as many as 34 students of pharmacy were awarded scholarships for pursuing their studies.

The Chairman of the ISF College of Pharmacy, Parveen Garg, gave away prizes to the students of pharmacy who were adjudged best in the paper presentation competition. 

Chandigarh, March 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the State of Punjab to complete the scrutiny of all old-age pension cases before June 30.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia also asked the state to thereafter refer the cases of ineligible or dead beneficiaries to the appropriate authorities for the requisite action in the matter.

The directions came as the Bench disposed of a petition filed in the public interest by Dr Sandeep Gupta of Hisar. If the petitioner still feels aggrieved, he may approach the high court again, the Bench further directed.

The directions came after the state filed an affidavit by superintendent in the Department of Social Security Baljinder Kaur. She said so far only Moga district had completed the re-scrutiny of old-age pensions. In Moga district alone, 878 beneficiaries were found ineligible. Another 218 beneficiaries were found absent during the scrutiny. As many as 214 beneficiaries were found to have died.

She also stated the cases of ineligible or dead persons had been sent to the appropriate authority for the necessary action in the matter. At this stage, the Bench directed the authority concerned to take expeditious action in cases where the beneficiaries had been found ineligible.

Lalru, March 30
In two burglary incidents, thieves targeted houses of two teachers. In the first incident, burglars struck at a closed house in Lalru Mandi and decamped with cash and jewellery worth lakhs.

House owner Sanjiv Kumar said he was at his shop, while his wife Shalini and daughter had gone to school.

His daughter found the gate and door locks broken while households, being scattered in the rooms when returned from school around 1.15 pm.

He said thieves had broken the lockers of all cupboards. Cash worth Rs one lakh, besides, gold ornaments of 29 tola were found missing from the house.

The police started investigations after visiting the spot.

In another incident, thieves decamped with lakhs of rupees.

House owner Meena said she was out of her house for a school duty and found the locks broken when returned and cash was missing.