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27 Gobindpura protesters booked
Cops lock themselves in
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Government
Bid To Buy Peace
Paddy stubble a burning issue
Pollution Board to start campaign from today
Needed: A viable method to dispose of crop waste
Left parties, PPP to contest all seats
BJP leaders refute Gera’s allegations
Govt transfers eight PCS officers
Centre gave Rs 1,293 cr to Punjab for health centres: Azad
Stop Duronto at Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Sirhind: Chawla
SI shot at, critically injured
Now, vehicle dealer will get your RC made
Punjabi University teachers demand release of arrears
Seven dengue cases in Patiala hospitals so far
Rajiv Gandhi varsity starts online legal news weekly
Sangeet utsav begins
Corruption rampant in DTO office, alleges social organisation
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27 Gobindpura protesters booked
Gobindpura, October 12 Leaders of various farmers’ bodies have condemned the cases against women registered under Sections 307 and 332 of the IPC. More than 200 farmers blocking the Bathinda-Mansa road were taken to the Joga, Bhikhi, Kot Dharmu and Jhunir police stations in Mansa in private buses amid heavy deployment and released late in the evening. Gobindpura residents raised slogans against the Badal government and burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister. Gobindpura has been turned into a police camp and none is allowed to enter the village without verification of credentials. Ram Singh Bhainibagha, district president of the BKU (Ekta-Ugraha) and general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said they wouldcontinue to agitate till the government rolled back its decision on land acquisition.
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Cops lock themselves in
Budhlada, October 12 The Tribune team that visited the police station today was told by a policeman standing across the wall that they had orders from their seniors to keep the gates shut. “For any complaints or query, please contact our senior functionaries in Mansa”, he said. “I was taken aback to see the gates of the Sadar police station locked when I went to lodge a complaint against the driver of a tractor that hit my scooter last night’, said Jagseer Singh of Garaddi village. SPS Parmar, Mansa SSP, said: “I am aware of the closed gates as we have detained some farmers at the police station. We do not want any outsider to interact with these farmers ”, he explained. He said a policeman would be deployed outside the gate to receive people’s complaints. Interestingly, policemen inside the Sadar police station denied that farmers had been detained there.
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Government
Bid To Buy Peace
Mansa, October 12 Candidates at the recruitment rally are, however, sceptical about the entire exercise which they say is aimed to pacify the protesters. “Nobody knows if the drive is genuine as even non-eligible candidates have been invited to submit certificates along with proof of age.” Ten women have also applied for the job. A committee of three officers - SP Amarjeet Singh, DSP Gurmeet Kaur and DSP Tarsem Singh - has been deputed to make the recruitments. DIG PS Grewal heads the committee. Neither has the police department mentioned the number of persons to be recruited, nor is there a cap on the age of the candidates. DSP Tarsem Singh said that so far 70 applications had been received. He had no idea where the physical test of these candidates would be conducted. DSP Tarsem Singh said the government had decided to relax the recruitment norms to “accommodate”Gobindpura residents. The candidates are reportedly being told that they will get their appointment letters in 20 days.Smelling a rat, most villagers said this was a tactic to blackmail people into readily giving away their land for the thermal plant.
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Paddy stubble a burning issue
Ludhiana, October 12 Commonly used during the paddy and wheat cropping cycle, the harvesters generate a large quantity of straw, disposing which is not an easy task. Therefore, the farmers, unmindful of the associated problems, set the stubble afire on their fields in order to make way for the next crop. Before the combine harvesting machines arrived, the residue used to be rooted out of the agricultural land. Besides being responsible for environmental degradation, including air and soil pollution, the stubble-burning practice also results in several ailments. Dr Kanwal Masih of the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, says the cases of respiratory ailment see a sharp rise during the post-harvesting period due to the gases emitted after the stubble is set ablaze. He says those suffering from bronchitis and asthma are the major sufferers as they experience breathlessness. Besides, there are several cases of allergy in this season. The menace results in the emission of dangerous gases, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide. They not only are harmful to human beings and animals, but also result in large-scale pollution. The burning exercise adversely affects the soil fertility too. Punjab Agriculture University Vice-Chancellor Dr BS Dhillon says about 21 million tonnes of paddy straw was generated due to the cultivation of paddy on about 25 lakh hectares in Punjab. Farmers commonly burn majority (55 per cent) of the residue in the open, as the time available with them for sowing the next wheat crop is only about 20 days. Dr Mukhtar Singh Gill, Director of Extension Education, Punjab Agriculture University, says the burning of straw damages the soil fertility. The soil microbes, flora and fauna, which make the soil fertile, die due to excess heat and rise in temperature on the upper layer. Chief Agriculture Officer RS Pandher says though the government has issued orders against the burning of stubble, farmers hardly pay heed to the directions. "Last year, 67 FIRs were registered against farmers caught burning straw on their fields in Moga, but no action could be taken due to political pressure…. We can generate awareness but we cannot take stern action,” he adds.
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Pollution Board to start campaign from today
Patiala, October 12 About 20 lakh students from all parts of the state would take out the march in various villages, towns and cities of the state to spread awareness among the farmers to stop the unhealthy exercise. The Punjab Pollution Control Board chairman, KS Pannu, said the march would be organised from 9 am to 11 am. "The students will carry banners and placards bearing slogans to exhort the farmers to stop the paddy stubble burning exercise, as it not only pollutes the environment but also leads to several health ailments. The students would also make the farmers
aware about the consequences of pollution caused by stubble burning," the Punjab Pollution Control Board chief said.
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Needed: A viable method to dispose of crop waste
One such tragic incident occurred yesterday, which claimed the lives of three children who were burnt to death when their auto-rickshaw veered into the portion of field where the paddy straw was set afire. Incidentally, the district authorities had initiated a number of steps to stem the problem, but they failed to bear any fruit. Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal claimed the steps taken in this connection were not 100 per cent feasible. "But that does not imply that we have lost hope. We are constantly in touch with the Punjab Agricultural University to find a concrete solution so that farmers can be discouraged from adopting such unpardonable steps….So far, we do not have any alternative to dispose of the crop straw," he said. Nevertheless, the administration has introduced a baler machine (imported from America), which has the property to recycle the paddy residue into fuel generation source and generating animal feed as well, but it could not prove to be a cost-effective method. Thereafter, crop shredding machines, which were ten-times cheaper than the baler machines, were launched, which used to shred the stubble and straw of the crop into small pieces and spread them back into the fields. But this machine, costing Rs 85,000 on subsidised rate, too, hardly found any takers, as it consumes a lot of time. A few farmers said the diesel cost to operate these machines discouraged them because it was quite an expensive affair as compared to the cost of only a "matchstick and that too effortless". Punjab has about 35 lakh hectares of land under wheat cultivation and 26 lakh hectares under paddy production while the Amritsar in district is 1.87 lakh and 1.85 lakh hectares, respectively.
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Left parties, PPP to contest all seats
Ludhiana, October 12 However, the SAD (Longowal), led by former Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, stayed away from the joint declaration made by the leaders of the “third front” here today. Talking to mediapersons, Dr Joginder Dayal, member of the central executive of the CPI, said the third front would emerge as a formidable alternative to the Congress on the one hand and the SAD-BJP coalition on the other hand. However, he did not rule out the possibility of certain other “like-minded” political parties and groups joining the front. “The parties joining hands with us will have to be secular in character, should not mix religion with politics and should be acceptable to those parties comprising the front,” Dayal said. Terming both the Congress and the SAD-BJP coalition as thoroughly corrupt with poor track record of governance, he said the UPA Government at the Centre and the ruling coalition in Punjab had failed miserably to tackle the problems of unemployment and poverty. "Still worse, the state government is going all out to privatise healthcare and education while running away from its constitutional responsibility," he said. Dayal alleged that more than 10,000 debt-ridden farmers had committed suicide in the state. “The state is in a deep financial crisis due to heavy unproductive expenditure, top-heavy bureaucracy and massive tax evasion,” he added. Claiming that loan waiver scheme introduced by the Centre did not provide much relief to the farmers in the state, he said against a total debt burden of Rs 50,000 crore, the share of Punjab was just Rs 1,200 crore. The alarming rise in drug addiction among the unemployed youth was also a cause for concern, he added. Meanwhile, the leaders of the SAD (Longowal) chose to stay away from the joint declaration and meeting of the left parties and the PPP here, although they had participated in some of the meetings earlier. Amarjit Singh Madan, organising secretary of the party, said the party had preliminary discussions with several other parties to form an electoral alliance. He said the party would hold a meeting tomorrow, adding that the final decision would be taken by the senior party leaders.
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BJP leaders refute Gera’s allegations
Patiala, October 12 Addressing mediapersons here today, Bajaj said it was extremely unfortunate that Gera had levelled wild allegations against Kohli. While claiming that maximum development works were initiated in Gera's ward, Bajaj said: "Till date, development works at the cost of Rs 1.56 crore had been completed in Gera's ward. Another amount of Rs 2.15 crore was recently sanctioned for undertaking development projects in her ward. It is completely baseless that party leadership had ignored her." Bajaj further said accusations of rampant corruption in the Patiala Municipal Corporation were completely baseless. "Gera's allegation that Mayor had humiliated her is far from reality", he said, while adding that Gera had nothing concrete to substantiate the allegations. "Also, if Gera has resigned from the BJP's primary membership, she should also quit the post of councillor and other posts being occupied by her", he demanded.
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Govt transfers eight PCS officers
Chandigarh, October 12 An official spokesman said Amarjit Paul had been posted as ADC, Hoshiarpur, relieving Vinay Bublani from this additional charge. Ritu Aggarwal, Additional Director (Administration), and DPI Colleges, has been posted as Special Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, in place of Gurdip Singh. Daljit Singh, Additional Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, and Secretary, SSS Board, has been posted as Additional Director (Estates), Punjab State Agriculture Marketing Board, Chandigarh, and Officer on Special Duty, Anandpur Sahib Foundation, Chandigarh. Gurdip Singh, Additional Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, and Additional Secretary to the Health and Family Welfare Minister, has been posted as Additional Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, in place of Daljit Singh. Indu Misra has been posted as Additional Secretary, Vigilance, in place of Jaspal Mittal, who is now Additional Director (Administration), Punjab State Agriculture Marketing Board, Chandigarh, and Secretary, Right to Service Commission, Punjab. Upjit Singh Brar, Additional Secretary, Excise and Taxation, Punjab, will also hold the charge of Secretary, Subordinate Services Selection Board, Punjab. Paramjit Singh Padda has been posted as Assistant Commissioner (Grievances), Barnala, and in addition Executive Magistrate,
Barnala.
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Centre gave Rs 1,293 cr to Punjab for health centres: Azad
Lehragaga (Sangrur),
October 12 “You have elections in next few months. Given the achievements of the UPA Government at the Centre, I appeal to you to vote the Congress to power so that there is better coordination between the Centre and Punjab for the growth of the state. I see a new sunrise in Punjab,” Azad said at a public meeting after laying the foundation stone of a 50-bedded sub-divisional hospital at Lehragaga here today. Responding to the requests of Congress leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh, election in charge of the Punjab Congress Gulchain Singh Charak and local MP Vijayinder Singla, to expose the fact that the SAD-BJP Government was getting liberal funding from the Centre, Azad disclosed the figures of the funds given by his ministry to the state. He said during the past six years of the UPA Government at the Centre, the Punjab Government had received Rs 1,293 crore for the construction of new health centres, including sub-centres, primary health centres, community health centres and district hospital. He added that this year, the Union Health Ministry had given Rs 276 crore to Punjab for various health centres. Azad said of the 21 district hospitals, the Centre had given funds for repair and renovation of 20 hospitals. He said the ministry was aware of the cancer problem in the Malwa region and had asked the state government to give the details of the requirement of machinery and specialists for the medical colleges of Faridkot, Patiala and Amritsar. The Union Health Minister said from this year, the Centre had asked all the state governments to encourage pregnant women to go to government hospitals for delivery. Azad said the Centre was also opening five nursing schools in the state, including Sangrur, Bathinda, Patiala and Gurdaspur. Meanwhile, Captain Amarinder Singh asked the party workers to be prepared and take up “lathis” against the “Akali goons patronised by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and his brother-in-law, Bikram Majithia”. He said, “We can’t let our Congress workers suffer intimidation silently. We will ensure that we pay them (Akalis) back in the same coin”. He said the Akalis had been trying to intimidate Congress workers and they had been doing it all these years. He said even after the SGPC elections, thousands of Congress workers were booked in false cases. The PCC chief asked the Congress workers not to wait for the police, who were being controlled by the Akali
jathedars.
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Stop Duronto at Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Sirhind: Chawla
Chandigarh, October 12 Chawla also called for a change in the departure timing of the train from Chandigarh. She said with the departure timing fixed at 7 pm, the commuters faced inconvenience as they reached Amritsar late in the night. The minister also urged that half the seats could be reserved whereas the remaining half should be reserved under the “tatkal” services. She said with the changed reservation system, the Railways could earn more revenue and the public could also be benefited.
— TNS
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SI shot at, critically injured
Jalandhar, October 12 Eyewitnesses said the two youths riding a bike fired at the SI and fled. Kulwant Singh and Gurbaksh Singh, deployed with the Police Control Room were informed by a couple in a Scorpio that their colleague was lying in a pool of blood.The PCR team rushed to the aid of the SI and took him to Sacred Heart Hospital in Maqsudan. The police has begun a hunt for the criminals. This was the second attack on SI Das in the past six months.
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Now, vehicle dealer will get your RC made
Zirakpur, October 12 Under the new facility, vehicle dealers across 17 districts of Punjab have been authorised to issue permanent registration numbers to purchasers of new vehicles right at the time of purchase of vehicle. After filling the form online while purchasing a vehicle, the smart card would be sent at the address of the vehicle owner through courier within 3-4 days. With the introduction of this facility, the vehicle owners would be saved from the cumbersome conventional system for registration of vehicles wherein a common man had to go to bank/treasury to pay taxes and then make rounds of the office of the District Transport Officer (DTO) for inspection of vehicle, allotment of temporary registration number and finally to collect RC, said Anurag Aggarwal, Transport Secretary, Punjab. Earlier, the Deputy CM inaugurated an e-governance initiative, authorising Principals of government colleges to issue learner’s driving licence after conducting mandatory tests besides recommending permanent driving licence to the DTO. At a later stage, the data of the learner’s licence would be transferred to the DTOs so that permanent driving licence could be made. Though the initiative was conceived three years ago, it has materialised at a time when the term of the present Akali Government is at its fag end. On being asked why all the initiatives are being unveiled when the elections are round the corner, the Deputy CM evaded the query by stating that it involved a lot of exercise and a number of meetings to implement the e- governance initiatives. A portal of the Transport Department, enabling any vehicle owner to pay taxes through online banking, was also inaugurated at the Government College, Phase 6, here. Every vehicle owner would get a user name and password for payment of online tax wherein permanent record of previously paid taxes of each vehicle would be maintained. If stopped by traffic constable or transport authority to check status of payment of tax of that particular vehicle, he would just send an SMS and would get reply by an SMS within 30 seconds showing a payment record of that vehicle. Similarly, any vehicle owner can get print out of history of payment of taxes to be shown to authorities anywhere.
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Punjabi University teachers demand release of arrears
Patiala, October 12 The PUTCC took a serious view of the non-payment of salary arrears by the Punjab government for the period of 43 months, i.e. from January 1, 2006 to July 31, 2009. Talking to The Tribune, Jaswinder Singh Brar, convener of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, made it clear that the payment of arrears should not be mixed up with increasing the age of superannuation to 65 years as recommended by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. He demanded that the entire scheme of pay revision as a package should be implemented as per the HRD ministry’s pay scale order and UGC regulations. “The government should immediately release the arrears, which actually runs into lakhs of rupees, from the state government as our counterparts in Panjab University, Chandigarh and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, got the full amount of arrears. Moreover, the neighbouring state of Haryana has already paid full arrears to the university professors,” he added. Further, the PUTCC was of the view that recently the Punjab Government, especially Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, has been repeatedly claiming that there was no financial crunch in the state and the same has been corroborated by the fact that the Punjab Government has redressed the financial demands of its employees by extending some financial benefits. Then, why was the government not paying any heed to our genuine demand is beyond our understanding, they added.
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Seven dengue cases in Patiala hospitals so far
Patiala, October 12 Patiala Civil Surgeon Varinder Singh Mohi said in the past 15 days, as many as three cases of dengue have been confirmed. “The most recent case is of Balwinder Singh from Deep Nagar but his condition is stable. After he was tested positive, I sent a team of health officials and they have taken the blood samples of 42 persons, including family members of Balwinder Singh, to ensure that they were not affected with dengue. We have also conducted hand-held fogging operations in the area to check the outbreak of the disease. I have also instructed my workers to keep strict vigilance in other areas as well,” he added. When asked as to why fogging was not done as a routine practice, he informed that as per the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, fogging should not be made a routine practice because then the mosquitoes develop resistance to fogging. Therefore, it is generally advised to do it as precautionary measure or in case of need,” he added. “After the patient was tested positive, I ensured that fogging was done in Deep Nagar. We have also done fogging at Rajindra Hospital on the request of Medical Superintendent of the hospital as the hospital was a very sensitive area,” he added.
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Rajiv Gandhi varsity starts online legal news weekly
Patiala, October 12 The Chief Editor of publication, Prof (Dr) SRS Bedi, said: “The publication was conceived during a conversation last year between Dr G.I.S Sandhu, Registrar and professor of Law, and Dr S.R.S Bedi, professor of Law at RGNUL, while they were discussing the possibility of establishing the Centre for Advance Studies in Human Rights (CASIHR) as a centre of excellence of the RGNUL.” “Having already established the centre under the guidance of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Paramjit Singh Jaswal by adding, for the first time, stream of international Law to B.A, LL.B (Hons), this publication was a part of the foremost objective of the Centre for Advance Studies in Human Rights established by the RGNUL to undetake advanced study and interdisciplinaryresearch,” he added. Thanking the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of RGNUL for this initiative, Prof Bedi was all praise for Ysshasvi Nain, Sharad Kharra and Rishab Raturi, Aprajita Paul and Ankit who are a part of the first editorial team. He said the aim of CASIHR was to emerge as a think tank for national and international issues relevant to promotion and protection of human rights and human dignity. Therefore, this publication would provide a suitable platform for discussing such issues and finding solutions to all kinds of problems affecting human beings these days.
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Sikh Heritage Award for Gurinder, Navtej, Sukhbir
Chandigarh, October 12 The Sikh Heritage Awards will mark the end of the week-long International Film Festival besides the Sikh Leadership Summit. The Sikh Heritage Awards will be the second global event of its type to be held within a week of the Sikh Awards held in London on October 9 in which Indian Test cricketer Harbhajan Singh and Ludhiana-based classical Gurbani teacher and singer Giani Kartar Singh are among the recipients. The Sikhs in the United States, especially those in the field of business, trade and industry, academics, medicine and engineering besides information technology, have won laurels during the past few decades. Some of the eminent and successful Sikhs have sponsored special chairs, fellowships and foundations in various universities in the United States. The New York event, a part of which will be hosted by the New York-based Bindra family at Hofstra University, has on its programme some literary events, including release of books. Union Minister of State for External Affairs Perneet Kaur will be in New York to attend the awards function where among others former chairman of the Minorities Commission Tarlochan Singh, India’s Consul-General in New York Prabhu Dayal and India’s Deputy Permanent Representative in the United Nations Manjeev Puri will be among the guests of honour. While Chadha, the producer of ‘Bend it Like Beckham’, has been chosen for the Sikh Heritage Award in the art category, Navtej Sarna, gets the award in the vision category. Sukhbir, folk singer and bhangra idol, will be felicitated for excellence in the field of entertainment. In the category of leadership, Jaspal Bhindra will get the award. The objective of the Sikh Leadership Summit, the first of its kind, is to inspire and develop the new generation of leaders. To be held on October 13, it proposes to bring together leaders from various walks of life to discuss their journeys to leadership. Panelists at the summit will include Gurinder Chadha, Mohanbir Singh Sawhney of Kellog School of Management, Gurvendra Singh Suri, Founder and CEO of Optimal Solutions while Mathew Bretfielder, Managing Director and Chief Talent Officer at BlackBuck will be the moderator. “Zafarnam Guru Gobind Singh”, a book by Navtej Sarna, and “Guru Nanak - the First Sikh Guru” by Rina Singh, will be released on October 14 as a part of the Sikh heritage celebrations. On October 15, short films and documentaries will be screened where winners in various categories of films will be felicitated.
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Sangeet utsav begins
Patiala, October 12 Inaugurating the utsav, Makkar applauded the efforts of Gurmat Sangeet Department in the promotion and propagation of Gurmat Sangeet. He said it was the music which blends the human soul with Almighty. He announced that Gurmat Sangeet subject would soon be introduced in all colleges of Punjab so that the students could know about our traditional music. He even assured that the SGPC would also provide high scale jobs to kirtankaris as per the demands by the department. Presiding over the function, Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Jaspal Singh said Gurmat Sangeet department and Chair played an important role in saving our culture and traditions.
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Corruption rampant in DTO office, alleges social organisation
Fatehgarh Sahib, Oct 12 The Hindu Organisation, a social association, alleged that the officials were taking full advantage of this ambiguity and implemented the instructions as per their own will depending upon who bribed them. The organisation alleged that the DTO office had become a den of corruption and no work was done without touts. Manoj Banda, secretary of the organisation, said a notification issued by the government on November 22, 2007, said: “The tax shall be counted on the actual price of the vehicle (excluding tax, if any)”. However, the DTO Office is charging tax, including VAT and surcharge. In certain cases, the MVT has been received without VAT and surcharge depending upon person to person. Prem Singh Saini, acting DTO, said they had to face a lot of humiliation and harassment at the hands of the public due to the lack of a clear-cut instruction regarding the
MVT.
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Mansa, October 12
Lehragaga (Sangrur),
October 12
Zirakpur, October 12
Farmers demanding their rightful claim were cane-charged, old women dragged and dissidents chased into their homes.The government should not only apologise but also order stern action against its men in khaki who unlawfully launched an attack on the Gobindpura protesters...The Badals are leaving no stone unturned to hand over the farmers’ land to a private company by paying them a
pittance
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The burning of straw, gathered as residue post-harvesting, leads to the emission of dangerous gases, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide
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When farmers burn stubble in their fields, the upper layer of the soil is rendered unfertile, affecting the quality of the next crop
Amritsar, October 12
Baler machine