The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	State with cancer belt has more to worry about: Expert Reproductive toxicity, DNA damage causes for concern too Megha Mann Tribune News Service Bathinda, August 4 Not only cancer but reproductive toxicity and DNA damage too are causes for concern in Punjab. It is high time the state government rose from its slumber to take steps towards addressing these two issues too, said epidemiologist Dr Amar Singh Azad from Patiala, who has been working in public domain raising environment and health issues. At Bathinda to participate in a seminar on environmental toxicity held at the Adesh Univeristy, Dr Azad said the semen count in Punjab's men has gone down by 40 per cent. He said the state's health department and the Punjab Agriculture University were in denial mode over the harmful effects of pesticides, which is creating many hurdles in mapping and treating the cancer cases. "The state government is providing Rs 1.5 lakh for treatment of a cancer patient, which is neither enough nor timely. Cancer is a horror. As soon as one is diagnosed with cancer, the patients' family does not await funds and get him/her treatment. Rs 1.5 lakh are not even sufficient to foot the medical bills of a patient. It would be better if the government provides free treatment to cancer patients," he said. He demanded that advanced cancer treatment should be made available in the public sector also. Talking about uranium being pointed as one of the factors responsible for the dreaded disease, he said the earth spewing out carcinogenic uranium was the result of deep tubewells that have gone beyond the permissible limits, to meet the drinking water and irrigation requirements of the Malwa region. "Nature has always left sub-soil water for human consumption. Deep drilling, which contains heavy metals, lead to such kind of problems. Today, tubewells have boring as deep as 1,200 feet," he said. Dr Amar Singh Azad added that not only uranium, but cocktail of toxins, including banned pesticides, were wreaking havoc.
	Less rainfall: Cotton growers repent switching to paddy Balwant Garg Tribune News Service Faridkot, August 4 With the monsoon playing truant, while the paddy growers are under stress to save their crops— spending heavily on diesel to pump water out of the ground and irrigate their water guzzling rice crop— a large number of cotton growers in the Malwa region are comparatively less strained. For this, the reasons are many. One is that cotton is considered to be among the most drought-resistant field crop. The other reason is that the dry season has had a major impact on pest pressure as drought-stressed plants are less attractive to pests. The other major incentive for the cotton growers this season is that cotton prices have already started showing an upward trend. In the last two weeks, cotton rates have shown an average increase of Rs 200 per quintal in Punjab. Cotton varieties were selling at Rs 4,200-Rs 4,350 per quintal on July 14 in Punjab and fetched a rate of Rs 4,500-Rs 4,625 on July 28 in various mandis. So, a large number of farmers in this part, who switched over to paddy this season, are repenting their decision. These cotton growing farmers changed over to paddy as cotton did not yield a remunerative price in the last one year. On the other hand, a good monsoon last season contributed to high yield for the paddy growers. So, this was the reason why in the cotton belt in north India, comprising Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, there was over 14 per cent decline in the area under cotton cultivation this season. From 16.95 lakh hectares under cotton last season, this season, the area got reduced to 14.58 lakh hectares in north India, said IJ Dhuria, director, material, Vardhman Group of Textile Industry. Out of the 2.37 lakh reduced area under cotton, while about 65 per cent went under paddy cultivation, the other 35 per cent area opted for the guar crop. While the paddy growers who opted for guar seed are not facing much of a problem with the prevalent drought-like situation, farmers who opted for paddy in place of cotton, are facing a tough time due to their increased cost of inputs, said Rajesh Singla, vice-president, SEL, a Ludhiana-based leading yarn export company. Experts in the cotton trade feel that there has been a marked decline in the area under cotton cultivation in the country this season. Therefore, cotton will fetch a high price. As a large area under cotton in Karnataka and Gujarat is completely rain-fed, so in the absence of rain, the farmers in these areas could not sow the seed as yet. Against 104 lakh hectares area under cotton cultivation last season, this season, the area has shrunk to 97.5 lakh hectares. Most of the deficit areas are in Gujarat and Karnataka, said Dhuria.
	Abohar residents abhor the sewerage mess in town Raj Sadosh Abohar, August 4 Sewerage woes in this sub-divisional town seem to be unending. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had, on a public interest litigation (PIL), directed the Abohar Municipal Council (MC) to take necessary measures to drain out sewerage water from different localities in the town. However, petitioner councillors Vimal Thatai and Suman Taneja, Vijay Chhabra of Anand Nagari, Harbans Singh and Satinder Pal Singh of Jammu Basti and Rakesh Kumar of Nanak Nagari resented that there had been no relief to more than 1.5 lakh residents besides visitors to the town. Six de-silting machines donated by a charitable trust and an equal number of equipment repaired by the MC after a long time have come to a grinding halt as diesel and staff were not arranged for the past four days. The machines are stranded in the middle of busy roads as well as streets in the town. With overflowing sewers, sewerage water has spilled over to the streets and has accumulated in front of the houses and shops. The stagnant sewerage water mixed with chemicals and garbage is not only a source of inconvenience to the residents but also poses risks to their health. Affected residents are living with a fear of some contagious disease spreading in their area. The petitioners had submitted that the sewerage system in Abohar town was age-old and has become totally defunct. The root cause of the problems being faced by the residents of the sub-divisional town was that the entire sewerage system has failed. The sewerage pipes are choked at number of places and sewerage lids are lying open at some places, posing danger to commuters, they said. They regretted that the authorities were not doing anything because the ruling alliance lost the elections from here. Pursuing vendetta politics, the ruling alliance in the state was not releasing any funds for development of the town, they alleged. The director of the Local Bodies had, vide the "most urgent" memo dated July 11, 2012, also directed the executive officer of the MC to drain out the sewerage water from residential areas immediately. Additional staff from the neighbouring towns was shifted to Abohar, but result-oriented efforts are yet to be made. Even the ward represented by the MC president is submerged in dirty water, Congress councillors regretted.
	R’sthan farmers protest diversion of water to Pak Our Correspondent Abohar, August 4 The canals monitoring committee formed by the Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti has lodged a strong protest with the offices of the chief ministers of Punjab and Rajasthan over diversion of water from Hussainiwala headworks to the West Punjab province of Pakistan. Samiti spokesman Subhash Sehgal, who toured the canal system along with some progressive farmers from the border segments of Srikaranpur and Raisinghnagar, told the Tribune here that with an improvement in the receipts at Hari Ke barrage from 21,800 cusecs to 26,000 cusecs at 6 am today, farmers in Sriganganagar hoped for restoration of water supply to sub-canals that were lying closed for past two weeks. But information gathered from different sources indicated that the Rajasthan feeder got 9,700 cusecs, Ferozepur feeder 10,200 cusecs and Sutlej bed system got 5,500 cusecs of water. However, only 1,450 cusecs were released to the Gang (Bikaner) canal against the prescribed share of 2,400 cusecs. Inquiries further revealed that substantial quantity of water was diverted to Pakistan from the Hussainiwala headworks under the pretext of "leakage". The farmers accompanying Sehgal said drought-like conditions were prevailing in the region that was known as the food bowl of Rajasthan. They said dry spell and scarcity of water created by Punjab may badly hit the cotton crop that was sown after restoration of supply on June 10. The total area under cultivation is 7.8 lakh acres but hardly 15 per cent of it gets sufficient water. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had last month assured a deputation of the Rajasthan SAD that there would be no discrimination in supply of water but it proved wrong, Sehgal said. The Samiti urged both the Chief Ministers to get supply of water to Pakistan stopped immediately and run the Gang canal and the Rajasthan feeder to full capacity.
	PUTA elections on Sept 14 Tribune News Service Patiala, August 4 Succumbing to the pressure of various organisations of the teachers that have been time and again holding protest rallies to get the Punjabi University Teachers’ Association elections restored, the university authorities have finally scheduled the elections for September 14. A notification issued by the university registrar states that the teachers of the constituent colleges of the university will not be allowed to cast their votes because of the orders of the High Court. The elections were stayed in 2003 after a petition over PUTA membership of teachers working in constituent colleges of Punjabi University was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Though the case was disposed of in 2010 after the court disapproved voting rights to the teachers of the constituent colleges, the university authorities did not hold the elections even after that. This decision has certainly brought a sigh of relief to hundreds of teachers who have been fighting against the delay.

Inter-state gang busted in Fazilka, 2 held
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, August 4
The Fazilka police claimed to have busted an inter-state gang involved in murder, docoity and theft of luxury cars. The police said it had arrested two of the gang members also.

In a recent case, they had snatched an Innova car and Rs 30 lakhs at gunpoint from one Satish Kumar, Director, Tara Motors, Abohar, last month.

Fazilka SSP Gurinder Singh Dhillon, while addressing a press conference, said CIA staff in-charge DSP Veer Chand, during a naka laid on the Abohar-Fazilka bypass yesterday at night, arrested Amarveer Singh alias Lali, a resident of village Busowal in district Kapurthala and Sandeep Singh alias Sonu, a resident of village Shekhupura in Fatehabad district of (Haryana) and recovered an Innova car besides an unlicensed .32 bore pistol from their possession.

However, Rs 30 lakhs have not been recovered so far.

Notably, the five arms-wielding persons had snatched an Innova car and Rs 30 lakhs cash from Satish Kumar Sharma of Abohar at gunpoint on July 19. After the investigations, the police found that the crime had been committed by the members of the notorious gang of Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukha, who was also involved in snatching.

“The gang has been operating in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pardesh and Rajasthan. They are involved in nearly two dozen cases of snatching, dacoity and murder and are wanted in four states,” claimed SSP Dhillon.

According to the SSP, besides being involved in murder cases the gang has so far stolen 10 luxury cars and looted six petrol pumps. “It is among the three most notorious gangs operating in the four states,” claimed the SSP.

Notably, gang leader Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukha, who is still at large, was lodged in Central Jail at Nabha on charges of murder. When he was being brought to the court on June 6, he managed to escape police custody by dodging the cops with the help of his accomplices, Lali and Mani, near village Rakhra in Patiala district.

It is stated that at that time, he was not handcuffed. “He has committed serious crimes after fleeing from police custody,” maintained the SSP

SP (Headquarters) Balbir Singh, DSP Abohar Raj Kumar Jalhotra and DSP, CIA staff, Veer Chand were also present at the press conference.