Jalandhar, July 12
Surging labour shortage problem and comparatively lesser water requirement are forcing farmers of Punjab, particularly of Doaba and Majha regions, to switch from the traditional paddy to a more lucrative basmati crop.

The fragrance of basmati has started luring Punjab farmers to such an extent that farm experts expect a neat 15 to 20 per cent enhancement in the area under the basmati cultivation in Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Tarn Taran districts this year.

“Farmers are fast embracing basmati cultivation as its comparatively late sowing not only solves their water and labour problems to a large extent, but also get them a good price of their produce as compared to the traditional paddy crop. Almost every paddy grower has started reserving some patch of his field for basmati now,” said Dr Swatantra Kumar Aery, Chief Agriculture Officer, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur districts.

In fact, basmati solves most of farmers’ problems as initiation of its late sowing process from July 10 and running up to the first week of August makes it a more suitable crop owing to easy availability of migrant labour after normal paddy sowing operations come to an end around July 10. Moreover, unlike traditional paddy, basmati, according to farm expert Dr Naresh Gulati, saves farmers from intensive irrigation requirements due to abundant rainfall in the region in July and August.

Punjab has all the ingredients like low temperature in September and October for crop ripening, which makes it an ideal state for switching from sowing the traditional paddy crop to basmati crop. At present, the state has an estimated area of 27.5 lakh hectares under paddy crop. Out of it, the share of basmati was roughly pegged to be around 20 per cent or around 5.5 lakh hectares.

In its effort to give a push to basmati farming under its ongoing crop diversification, the Punjab Agriculture Department has adopted 150 villages in Amritar, Tarn Taran, and Gurdaspur districts under the Punjab Government-Ratan Tata Trust-run Basmati Vikas Project.

“The project is aimed at encouraging farmers to adopt basmati cultivation and we provide them with all the assistance under the integrated pest management project,” said Aery. The area of basmati cultivation in Jalandhar district alone, according to Gulati, is expected to increase from 16,000 hectares to 18,000 hectares this year. Similarly, the basmati cultivation area is likely to increase from 60,000 hectares to 65,000-70,000 hectares in Gurdaspur district this time around, Dr Swatantra Kumar Aery says.

Hoshiarpur, July 12
The Punjab Government will construct a railway overbridge (ROB) on the Mukerian-Gurdaspur road near Mukerian town at a cost of Rs 20 crore. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will lay its foundation stone very shortly.

Disclosing this while laying the foundation stone of the 2.70 km-long Mauli-Tangar Kalan link road to be constructed at a cost of Rs 40.14 lakh near Mukerian yesterday, Punjab Medical Education and Research, Forest and Wildlife and Labour Minister Arunesh Shakar said the state-level vanmahotsav would be held on July 16 at Tehsil Complex, Mukerian. To make Punjab green and for the improvement of its environment, two crore saplings of various trees were being planted in the state during this monsoon season.

He also inaugurated the water supply scheme of Rs 31.15 lakh for Purika village, Rs 35.43 lakh scheme for Toor village and Rs 60.18 lakh scheme for Mauli village. With their inauguration, the supply of potable water to seven villages of the area has started.

He also inaugurated a newly constructed room of Government Middle School, Toor. He announced a grant of Rs 4 lakh for the pavement of streets and drains of Mauli and Toor villages and Rs 42,000 for the Mahila Mandals of both the villages.

Hoshiarpur, July 12
With the arrest of two persons, the district police today claimed to have solved the murder case of Kamlesh, wife of late Ram Lal, a resident of New Colony, Mukerian, who was found murdered in her house on July 3.

Hoshiarpur SSP Rakesh Aggarwal said the police had arrested Rinku Kumar (18), a resident of Himmatpur (Dasuya), and Sunil Sharma (25), alias Baba, a resident of Arya Samaj Mohalla, Mukerian, for murdering Kamlesh.

The SSP said Suresh Kumar, a local resident, told the police that his mother-in-law Kamlesh had been living alone at her house as his son along with his family was settled abroad. On July 3, Kamlesh’s tenant Satish Kumar telephoned him that a new lock had been placed in the place of the old one at the main door of his mother-in-law’s house. He became suspicious and rushed to Mukerian. With the help of Kamlesh’s neighbours, he broke opened the lock and found the body of his mother-in-law lying inside the storeroom. Marks of strangulation were found on her neck. Household articles were scattered and Kamlesh’s gold earrings, rings and nose-pin were missing. On his statement a case under Section 460 of the IPC was registered by the police.

During investigation it emerged that a red-coloured pair of slippers (flip-flops) found in Kamlesh’s house belonged to Rinku Kumar, who had taken a room on rent in her house about a month ago. On seeing his alleged bad habits Kamlesh got vacated the room about 15 days ago from him.

The police arrested Rinku Kumar who confessed that he along with Sunil Sharma came to the house of Kamlesh on the morning of July 3. He got opened the door on the pretext that he was going outside Mukerian and came to pay 15 days room rent. As they entered into the house, they strangulated her to death. They also snatched the aforesaid gold ornaments from her body.

Besides, they also took a CD player, a home theatre, a hairdryer, a juicer grinder machine, mobile phone, two pairs of anklets, ATM card and artificial jewellery. Before disappearing, they placed a new lock on the gate of the house. Later, they distributed the stolen articles among themselves.

The police had recovered a mobile phone, a gold earring and nose pin, a pair of anklet, a CD player and juicer grinder machine from them, the SSP said and added that both were addicts and to fulfil their lust of intoxication they did the aforesaid crime.