Ludhiana, March 22
The Municipal Corporation (MC) will commence house-to-house enumeration to cross-check the data entered in the national population register (NPR) from July 1, which will continue till March 31, 2013. On the completion of the enumeration process, the next phase of the nationwide programme to issue a unique identification card (UID) will be taken up.

This was stated by PS Ghumman, Joint Commissioner of the MC, who is also the Principal Census Officer, after a meeting of the MC charge officers here today. All 32 charge officers deployed for the enumeration process attended the meeting.

Besides extended interaction with the charge officers, a power-point presentation was also made during the meeting to apprise them of the detailed procedure for enumeration and the significance of the data which needed to be cross-checked before final entry in the NPR.

“The charge officers will coordinate with 3,132 enumerators, one each for as many blocks in the city limits, who will go from house-to-house to cross-check the data collected for the NPR which was recorded during the census operations conducted in 2010 for National Census 2011.

In the next phase of the operations to be taken up after March 2013, every individual will be photographed, in addition to obtaining their fingerprints and iris prints which will go in the making of the UID.

State Census Officer Naginder Yadav said the UID based on the NPR would be issued to every individual over the age of five years.“Those who had already received the Aadhar UID cards issued by the UID Authority of India will have to provide their UID number without having to provide documentary proof of residence or verification as the data recorded on their
Aadhar cards will be transferred to the new UID cards,” he said.

Ludhiana, March 22
To promote vasectomy operation in males, the government is facilitating men with free of cost non-scalpel vasectomy along with incentive of rupees 1,100, yet the misconceptions continue to haunt males and keeping them away from this surgical procedure of sterilisation.

Recently, the Christian medical College and Hospital had organised a free non-scalpel vasectomy camp in the family planning wing of the gynaecology department with the help of the Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, and District Family Welfare Officer under the National Health and Family Welfare Scheme of the Government of India. It was announced that first 50 acceptors would have a choice to take an Avon cycle or Rs1,100.It is surprising but true that very few males came forward to undergo the procedure.

Talking to the Tribune, Dr Kumkum Awasth, head of the gynaecology department of CMC, said, "Very few males opt to go for vasectomy.” In 2008-2009 114 cases of tubectomy and three of vasectomy was performed. In 2009-2010 there were 143 cases of tubectomy, 12 of vasectomy. In 2010-2011, 198 tubectomy and 16 vasectomy procedure was done. In 2011-2012 (till March 21), 259 tubectomy and 72 vasectomy operations were performed. To promote vasectomy, the government also began giving incentive of Avon cycle to males and the percentage of vasectomy

procedure increased from 8.08 per cent last year to 27.8 per cent this year. She further said that illiteracy and unawareness played a big role in it.

Dr Neelam Sodhi, gynaecologist, said," These people need counselling. At the grass-root level, generally, males are not included while holding discussions related to family planning."

Dr Subhash Batta, Chief Medical Officer, Ludhiana, said, " Team members of the health department try their level best to counsel such people for vasectomy, but their mindset has not changed as of now. To promote vasectomy the government has also initiated a scheme that if a male goes for the procedure, he is given a cash amount of Rs 1,100, but still less males opt for it. And this is the reason that we complete our targets of tubectomy and lag behind in completing targets of vasectomy.”

Ludhiana, March 22
The mysterious disappearance of an 18-year-old youth from Dhandra Road in Dugri has turned out to be a shocking case of honour killing.

The victim, who has been identified as Ardeep Singh, alias Happy, was reportedly having an affair with a minor girl living in the same locality. The family of the girl objected to it and brought the matter to the notice of Happy’s parents. However, the duo kept meeting against their parents’ wishes.

The gruesome murder came to light here this evening when the city police arrested the maternal uncle of the girl in this connection and recovered Happy’s body from the Sirhind branch canal near Morinda this evening.

Happy was allegedly abducted from the Dhandra area here last evening by Munish, Saurabh and their two accomplices. The parents of the victim had levelled allegations againt the girl's family for kidnapping their son.

After registering a case, the police questioned the girl’s family. It was found that Munish, Saurabh and their accomplices abducted Happy and took him to a vacant plot in Rajpura, where they murdered him. Later, they took his body to the Morinda canal branch and dumped it there.

Ludhiana, March 22
The artisans from West Bengal, who came to participate in Saras Mela at the Government College for Women, have booked orders worth Rs 5 lakh from the local industry. These artisans were able to sell products above Rs 6 lakh during the 12 days mela.

An industrialist said, “I have purchased products worth Rs 50,000. I have placed orders for jute products, which are expensive in showrooms and malls. But we are getting them at reasonable rates. My friends have purchased wrought iron and other furniture from Saharanpur- based artisans. What we get here is much expensive, but garden chairs and tables are being sold at affordable prices.”

ADC (General), Pradeep Aggarwal said self-help groups were satisfied with the footfall in the mela. Products made of jute, terracotta, wrought-iron furniture, pickles and spices from Kerala were sold like hot cakes.

“Besides these, dry flowers from Nagaland were also sold in a large number. At least 235 members of self-help groups from 23 states have expressed satisfaction over the encouraging response to the mela. Many of them have booked orders, which means they can get good business from the local industry in future as well,” added Aggarwal.

Ludhian, March 22
The Golden Jubilee Kisan Mela organised by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), concluded here today.

Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University (GADVASU) Vice-Chancellor Dr. VK Teneja was the chief guest on the occasion. While honouring the winners of various produce competitions, Taneja said that the common mission of both PAU and GADVASU was to work for the welfare of farming community of Punjab on a sustainable basis. Taneja remarked that both the universities organised the Kisan Mela jointly and that this was exemplary in the country. This will definitely benefit the farming community, he said. In view of the shrinking land holdings, subsidiary occupations such as dairy farming, fishery, poultry, goat farming, bee-keeping, mushroom growing, etc. the Kisan Melas would help enhancing farming income.

In his presidential remarks, Dhillon said with reference to Agriculture Minister Tota Singh's message of putting farmers on the track of cooperative culture, Dhillon said that for a profitable agriculture, 'cooperative culture' was a must. He suggested farmers to cultivate pulse crops such as summer moong after wheat, which offered multiple benefits of soil enrichment and profitable returns.

Farmers must work in a business mode, said Dhillon. He emphasised that proper account keeping was important to farming. He advised farmers to connect with experts by reading farm literature brought out by PAU.

Dr SS Gosal, PAU director of research, said that by adopting new farm technologies agriculture could be made more scientific and profitable. He said that two experimental varieties of paddy with better quality, disease tolerance and yield were in the pipeline for release.He said that Kisan Melas provided opportunities to get direct feedback from farmers that helped in orienting the need-based programme.

Ludhiana, March 22
The Nutrition Garden Project of Punjab Agricultural University to promote horticulture in the state has got good response from farmers. More than 5,000 saplings of various fruits were sold in two-day Kisan Mela. Kinnow, peach, sweet oranges and lemon plants were the main attractions of the farmers.

Gurbax Singh Kahlon, head of horticulture department, said most of the farmers bought these plants for domestic use. We have started a Nutrition Garden Project in which we suggest the farmers to plant trees for nutritional needs of their families. Nutritious food is very necessary for our body to keep fit. By implementing this project farmers can stay healthy and fit".

"We sold more than 5,000 fruit saplings. Farmers were most interested in Kinnow trees. The university will start selling the new variety of kinnows "daisy tangerine" from the next season" said Kahlon.

Suggesting the framers Kahlon said, "Farmers should adopt the horticulture for the diversification of farming. We suggest them to properly check soil and water before adopting gardening for a good yield".

Ludhiana, March 22
Agricultural literature attracted farmers at the PAU Kisan Mela as the university sold over three lakh books and 700 persons opted for monthly subscription in two days.

About 15 stalls selling literature pertaining to religion and other subjects were displayed at the mela. Various publications and booksellers were happy with the response of the public. “Package of Practices of Crops” was the bestselling book at the fair.

The Additional Director Communications, PAU, Dr Jagtar Dhiman, said: “Awareness among rural masses about scientific books has been increasing. Four years ago, the university used to generally sell around 58 lakh publications, which increased to 104 lakh by 2012. The subscription of the monthly magazine of the university has also gone up due to the layout, content and paper. “Now, we are going to start an online subscription of the farm magazines ‘Changi Kheti’ and ‘Progressive Farming’. Both magazines are available on our website.”

Ludhiana, March 22
A flash mob piqued the attention of curious onlookers at PAU near Thapar Hall on the second day of PAU Kisan Mela. Instead of grabbing the attention by dancing, which is usually done at a flash mob, about 30 students started reading at the place, out of the blue. Underlining the need to read books, the group freezed for 10 minutes reading books under the theme - “Readers are Leaders”. A book Asal Vidya authored by noted scholar, psychiatrist and former director of PGI, Chandigarh, Dr Jaswant Singh Neki was gifted to the visiting farmers on the spot.

The students wore banners to promote work culture with slogans - “Work is the best panacea for all ills”, “Work is the best antidote to depression”, “Work is more fun than fun,” etc.

Sukhpreet Kaur, MCA student said, "Students are enthusiastic about gifting books to the visiting farmers. Reading and gaining knowledge is imperative for changing the attitude of masses."

Noted photo artist TPS Sandhu and Harwinder Singh, a software engineer from Boston, USA, presented their self-autographed books to the volunteers and appreciated their efforts.

In the age of GDP we often forget the importance of happiness and we need to focus now on gross domestic happiness (GDH) as well, quipped Gursewak Singh, an MBA student.

Around 500 books were distributed amongst the farmers by the students in order to spread the messages of dreaming good, working hard and saying no to drug abuse, said Sarabjeet Singh, associate professor with languages and journalism department, who organised the event.

Ludhiana, March 22
Some of the city residents are facing trouble in booking speed post on Sundays, as the only post office where the facility is available on Sundays was sub-post office Miller Ganj.

The facility was shifted from the Speed Post Centre near the railway station in January 2011. After that, the speed post and registry services have been started at different post offices where booking is done till 7 pm at some offices and till 9 pm at the other offices.

The facility has been restored a few months back, but on Sundays, people have to go to Miller Ganj office only.

Due to which employees are particularly inconvenienced, because many of them prefer to use the facility only on Sundays because of the time constraints, and have to go all the way to Miller Ganj Post office.

"I work with a private organisation and am tied-up from early morning to late evening. I get time only on Sundays for sending any speed posts," said Nitin Verma, a resident of Vishal Nagar.

"In the absence of any conveyance it gets difficult to reach there, because no autos or city-buses from there, whereas railway station is easily accessible, he said.

Although, starting of the speed post services till late hours at some of the post offices was a good step yet the services on Sundays should be started at some post office, which was more accessible, rather than only at Miller Ganj post office, said an elderly resident of the Civil Lines.

RL Meena, Superintendent of the post offices, Ludhiana City Division, said that the matter will be considered.

Ludhiana, March 22
The residents on the World Water Day feel that administration is not doing much to save water in the city. Dr VK Arora of the department of soil sciences said that the water table was going down by 2.5 feet every year.

RP Gupta, secretary of Maharaja Agrasen, an NGO, which also works to bring awareness about saving water, said that the government should spread awareness about the judicious use of water, which was not being done. Laws about water harvesting should be done.

Jit Kumar Gupta, vice-president of Indian Institute of Architects said that about 40 to 45 per cent of total potable drinking water goes into sewerage in the city, and the flush system is water intensive.

For this purpose, the water cisterns need to be replaced with 5 litre cisterns washrooms all across. Currently, 1 cisterns with 15-10 litres are being used across in most of the places.

Recycling has to be made mandatory. Of the total water that was currently being supplied, 80 per cent of was being wasted and only 20 per cent is being consumed, he said. Wastewater from bathrooms and kitchens was grey water and has minimal pollution and requires minimal treatment. The grey water after treatment should be used for flushing purposes. The administration needs to ensure that treatment mechanism should be installed and made mandatory. Waterless urinals should be installed and used at all places including homes, he said. These contain chemicals and do not require water.

Ludhiana, March 22
A 55-year-old man committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his shop located on the Rahon road here today. The victim has been identified as Roor Singh. He was running a photo studio.

According to his family members, he was depressed as he was not getting good returns from the business. The police said he used his turban to hang himself. The victim was spotted hanging from the ceiling by a customer, who raised the alarm and informed the police. — TNS