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State to move away from growing paddy
PUDA COMMERCIAL PLOTS
Interns petition PSHRC over unpaid stipend
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Snakes in the house? Panel to rescue reptiles in distress
From prosperity in Pakistan to penury in India
Indian citizenship is all they want
Teachers to hold protest
tomorrow
Infant’s death
Squadron Leader DS Tomar cremated with honours
Entire staff of Joga police station shifted
Killing of Kapurthala man in US
High Court asks police to vacate community halls
List illegal marriage palaces: HC
No mining without clearance: HC
Drug peddler from Nawanshahr nabbed in Delhi
Clerk in DC’s office part of gang selling fake permits
Mandi Board chairman accuses staff of fraud
Newlywed couple jumps to death
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State to move away from growing paddy
Chandigarh, August 17 A meeting of senior officials of the Agriculture Department will be held here on August 22 to chalk out a strategy to gradually move away from cultivating paddy to growing other crops such as pulses, guar, sugarcane, fruit and vegetables. Sources said the Finance Commissioner would preside over the meeting. Pawar, during his visit here last week, had told the officials concerned that they should devise a strategy to switch over from paddy to other crops. Pawar had said that in the next couple of years, Chhattisgarh and the North-Eastern states would produce enough rice and there would be few takers for Punjab’s paddy. Punjab has been growing paddy on about 28 lakh hectares every year. About 80 per cent of free power given to farmers is utilised for irrigating paddy with tubewells.The power subsidy bill for the farm sector has touched Rs 5,400 crore. Source said a team of senior officials was preparing a draft proposal to be submitted to the Central Government to convert the kandi belt into a horticulture belt. This belt is suitable for growing fruit. Already, kinnow is grown is some parts of Hoshiarpur. The area is suitable for growing best varieties of mango and potato. There is a proposal to encourage sugarcane cultivation in the Gurdaspur-Batala-Hargobindpur belt. The has several sugar mills. The Morinda-Samrala-Fatehgarh Sahib belt is also favourable for growing sugarcane besides vegetables. However, the area under cane has gone down to 80,000 hectares from about 2 lakh hectares some years ago. Most cooperative sugar mills have become defunct owing to non-availability of raw material (sugarcane) in the state.Areas close to big cities can be used to grow vegetables. Pulses can be grown in the Mansa-Bathinda-Muktsar belt. The Abohar- Fazilka belt is suitable for citrus fruit. Most parts in the state are suitable for growing maize. With an excellent irrigation network, Punjab can provide fresh vegetables, fruit and quality pulses to the country. “We will ask the Centre to give us grant-in- aid for some years to switch over from paddy to other crops”, said a senior official. The state government is also engaged in preparing its agriculture policy.The issue of crop diversification will also be addressed in that policy document. “The big task before us at the moment is to make agriculture sustainable and to improve the income of small and marginal farmers as most of them are under stress because of debt”, said sources. The Plan Senior officials to meet on August 22 to chalk out a strategy Govt preparing draft proposal to convert the kandi belt into a horticulture belt Proposal to encourage sugarcane cultivation in the Gurdarspur-Batala-Hargobindpur belt This belt has several sugar mills The Morinda-Samrala-Fatehgarh Sahib belt is suitable for growing sugarcane and vegetables Pulses can be grown in the Mansa-Bathinda-Muktsar belt The
Abohar- Fazilka belt is suitable for citrus fruit
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PUDA COMMERCIAL PLOTS
New Delhi, August 17 A Bench comprising Justice KS Radhakrishnan and Justice Madan B Lokur delivered the verdict, setting aside a judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court had taken the view that PUDA could not legally impose such penalties since there was a delay in providing basic amenities like parking, lights, road, water and sewerage. PUDA had auctioned the plots on March 16, 2001. The apex court, however, pointed out that Clause 25 of the auction conditions was binding on both the parties. Under this clause, the site had been offered on an “as is, where is” basis. The beneficiaries could have paid the entire amount in lump sum, but they had availed of the installment facility, the SC pointed out. It was made clear in the allotment letter that in case of failure to pay installments by the 10th of every month, the Estate Officer should proceed to take action for imposition of penalty at 2 per cent a month in addition to the simple interest. Further, failure to make payment for three months in a row could result in cancellation of allotment. “We notice that the respondents had accepted the commercial plots with open eyes, subject to the conditions…” “The allottees would have ascertained the facilities available at the time of auction and after having accepted the commercial plots on an ‘as is, where is’ basis, they cannot be heard to contend that PUDA had not provided basic amenities,” the SC held. “We find that this is not a case where PUDA was callous or indifferent or had caused an inordinate delay in providing basic facilities to allottees.” “In our view, the High Court has not properly comprehended the scope of the judgment of this court in Shantikunj Investment and the terms and conditions of the auction,” the Bench ruled.
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Interns petition PSHRC over unpaid stipend
Bathinda, August 17 SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill referred the students to the district administration. The leader of the protesting students, Karandeep Singh, said the college authorities have been summoned tomorrow for an explanation. Of the 37 interns from the 2008 batch, 32 are pressing for granting stipend during their internship period. While the college spokesperson said no private college in the state gives stipend except for a college located at Banur, the students claimed the case was otherwise. They said the Banur college was paying the highest amount of Rs 4,000 as stipend to its BDS interns, while a Sunam-based dental college was paying Rs 1,500 as the lowest stipend. "But at the same time, the colleges paying a low stipend also have low hostel charges. Adesh College is charging us Rs 1.04 lakh annually as hostel charges for non-AC rooms, whereas the hostel charges of other colleges is not more than Rs 65,000 to Rs 70,000," the students said. The protesting students added that while they were charged Rs 1,04,900 as hostel fees but they were given a receipt for only Rs 87,900. "The hostel fees are arbitrarily increased by Rs 10,000 every year. When we took admission here, the fees was Rs 52,700 without security which has now become almost double the amount," said the students Interns, who are students of the 2008 batch, alleged that the revision of Rs 10,000 annually of the hostel fee is a steep hike. "Our hostel fee was Rs 67,000 at the onset of our course, which has now risen to Rs 1,04,900. However, the institute gives us a receipt for Rs 87,000 only," they said. The interns also alleged that the college does not provide them with dental material to be used on patients. They also accused the college authorities of asking them to work as lab technicians also sometimes.
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Snakes in the house? Panel to rescue reptiles in distress
Bathinda, August 17 The members of the committee said they received phone calls from various places in the city and adjoining areas to catch snakes. "For this, we decided to form a committee that would rescue snakes without harming them," said a member of the committee, Vikram Raj. The committee members said they were upset over the killing of snakes and decided to release their helpline numbers (98035-22781, 98140-48200) among the residents who wished to release the snakes caught on the outskirts of the city. These youths have been catching snakes for over five years and now form a four-member group. "I used to get scared at the mere sight of a snake but once I caught a venomous snake accidentally in my younger sister’s room, my fears were dispelled. Now, I have caught more than 400 snakes and have released them in the jungles," said Vikram Raj Vicky, the president of the recently formed Shiv Bhole Naag Raksha Samiti. Snakes have bitten Vicky twice but he has survived. Vicky, 23, and his colleagues, Kuldeep, Babbu, Sandeep and a few others have attended distress calls from various households in the city and the adjoining villages. These youths do not accept money in lieu of catching snakes from homes. "We only request people not to kill the snakes and let us know whenever they notice a snake in their homes," said Vikram. He said snakes come out of hibernation during the rainy season. In just the last two they have rescued more than 50 snakes. The maximum number of calls are received from the kutcha houses in villages but at times snakes also sneak through the cemented floor in city houses. The area from where the NGO received the maximum number of phone calls in the last two months are Gopal Nagar, Janta Nagar, Parasram Nagar, Partap Nagar and the nearby villages of Bibi Wala, Behman and Teona. In posh localities, snakes were caught in rooms where the air-conditioners were installed. They also got a phone call from the police apartments in Lal Singh Basti from where they also caught a snake. The members of the Samiti said they caught the snakes using two wooden sticks and tried to nab them near its head. Mostly five to six varieties of snakes are found in Bathinda and their length varies from a minimum of three feet to nine feet. "If the snake is small in size, then we keep it in a jar. If it is big, then we hold it with our hands and release it in the open area on the outskirts of the city or in the woods of Bir
Talab," said the volunteers of the Samiti.
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From prosperity in Pakistan to penury in India
Amritsar, August
17 Krishan Das is one of the hundreds of Hindus and Sikhs who migrated from Pakistan over the last more than six decades and made Pishauri Nagar locality their home. The Tribune caught up with Krishan Das as this octogenarian fruit seller was loading fruits on to his cart today. "We migrated to India as we feared for our lives. The atmosphere in Pakistan had changed post-Partition. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had extended a helping hand to us by facilitating a financial aid of Rs 2,000 and, subsequently, we shifted out base," he says. Striking a nostalgic chord, he recalls that his family had a prosperous business in Pakistan. "We had a number of shops, besides our dairy business.
'Assi uthe raaj karde si' (we used to call the shots in our area there)," he says, his voice quivering apparently due to the stark contrast between his family's earlier and present standard of living. Krishan's one son sells vegetables while the other ekes out a living by doing menial jobs in Rambagh area. Another resident, Channa Ram, in his late 70s, remembers that they had their own agricultural land and they used to transport grains on camels and other animals to market. "We had a number of servants and wielded a lot of influence those days," says the elderly man, who now stitches clothes in a dilapidated tailoring shop in the locality. One of his sons is a tailor while the other plies an
autorickshaw. A few prospered
Not all the migrants are financially weak. A few of them have prospered with their sheer hard work. "They have established their businesses and even own big houses. They are very diligent and their children do not shy away from doing any job," says Kewal Singh, a local resident.
Baldev Raj, who belongs to the second generation of Pakistan Hindus and was born in
Amritsar, admits that those who migrated from Pakistan could not educate their children, primarily because they came from rural background and were more inclined towards business. He, however, says things have changed now as their children are studying in colleges, even in other cities. "We marry our children within our community, which is now spread in different parts of the country. We have even formed a society which stands by all the members in their good and bad times," averred
Baldev. But what's interesting to see is that Hindus and Sikhs who migrated to India live like a close-knit community at Pishauri
Nagar, which is evident from the fact that the gurdwara and the temple are located right next to each other. Some got citizenship
As far as Indian citizenship is concerned, those who migrated in 1957 claim they have got it. Pishauria Gurdwara Committee president Anant Ram earlier told The Tribune that nearly 150 families of the community arrived here in the 1950s following an "exchange agreement" between India and Pakistan. Later, families belonging to the community kept migrating from Pakistan at regular intervals in 1979, 1993 and 1999. He said all these migrant families had been granted Indian citizenship. He said the number of the families kept swelling and apart from
Amritsar, they are settled at Jalandhar, Khanna and Yamunanagar. However, the ones who followed them were not as lucky. The likes of Bihari
Lal, Jagdish Sharma and Harbans Singh, who migrated from Pakistan around seven to eight years back in 2005, are still struggling for the citizenship.
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Indian citizenship is all they want
Jalandhar, August 17 Settled in 3 localities
The Hindu families which migrated from Pakistan —comprising 300 members in all — are primarily settled in Basti Bawa
Khel, Basti Danishmandan and Gandhi Camp in the city. One thing they feel contended about is nobody calls them a
'kafir' (a derogatory religious remark) here. But, they say their sufferings are larger in extent to eclipse this sense of pride. Landing in menial jobs
Kale Ram, who lives in Basti Bawa Khel area, says after migrating from Pakistan, his son never returned to school. The reason: he did not possess an Indian identity proof. He had studied in a
'madarsa' (religious school) in Pakistan up to Class X. Similar is the fate of other children. A majority of them have been forced to do menial jobs just because they could not pursue their education due to lack of an identity proof. Ashok Kumar of Gandhi Camp says a few of his relatives came to India some time back with a dream they would settle here. But, visa problems forced them to return with a heavy heart, he says. His relatives were not the only ones, as around 400 families had to go back due to the same reason. "About 150 of these families were forcibly converted to Islam. Another problem is getting a visa for Punjab (India) is next to impossible. Pakistani migrants are allowed to live only either in Ambala or in Delhi," he says, appearing apprehensive about the fate of his relatives. Recalling the atrocities they had to bear in Pakistan brings tears to their eyes. "We were a very small population of Hindu families in Pakistan. In our village in
Sialkot, there were no Hindu shrines or temples. They called us 'kafir'. We couldn't sit shoulder to shoulder with a Muslim and share a meal. Our utensils too were kept separately," says Kale Ram, who came in 2006 on a 30-day visa and has been extending it ever since. Passport problem
The bigger problem that the family has been facing now is that their passports have expired and the Pakistan Embassy has been telling them to return back to the neighbouring nation to get new ones made. Another migrant, Prem
Nath, used to work at a factory in Pakistan and migrated 15 years ago. "We could not be a part of their (Muslims') ceremonies but they walked into ours. Our functions would have more Muslim spectators than Hindu guests. We used to be cursed and abused for not burying our dead…. Some just hated my name," he says. Even the concept of a long-term visa, as announced by India, does not appeal much to them. "So far, we used to extend our visas for six months, a year or two years. Now, it will be extended for seven years. But, that is not our demand. All we want is Indian citizenship. May be, we will get it one day," says an optimistic Prem
Nath.
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Teachers to hold protest
tomorrow
Patiala, August 17 State president of the union Gurwinder Rattan said that though the vacancies were advertised in 2009, the teachers got their appointment letters after almost two years. Now, even after issuing the appointment letters to us a year ago, the government has still not regularised our services, Rattan said. As a result of this we are paid salaries that are much less than what the regular master cadre teachers in Education Department get, he added. While the master cadre teachers in the Education Department get a basic salary of Rs 18,300 and a total of more than Rs 30,000, the non regularised master cadre teachers are paid a total of Rs 5,400, vocational teachers Rs 5,800, lecturers Rs 6,400, librarians Rs 4,000, Art and craft teachers Rs 4,500. Unemployed teachers who have passed the Teacher Eligibility Test would also join the rally in Ludhiana on August 19, demanding job openings.
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PSPCL workers hold protest
Patiala, August 17 Addressing the gathering, Parmod Kumar, the state general secretary of the TSU, strongly demanded that the service rules of the Power Corporation employees should not be amended. He said, the kin of the persons who died in a harness should be employed on compassionate grounds. “The state government must issue appointment letters to 4000 unemployed linemen in the Power Corporation,” he said.
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Infant’s death
Jalandhar, August 17 Also, three staff nurses (one of them being suspended nurse Harjot Kaur Oberoi) and an emergency medical officer have been charge-sheeted. Mittal initiated action after going through the inquiry reports submitted by a committee chaired by Additional Deputy Commissioner Perneet Bhardwaj, the Director, Health and Family Welfare, Dr Karanjit Singh, and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu. The Health Minister’s order says that 12 neo-natal care units will be set up during 2012-13. Two of these units, one at Mother and Child Care Hospital, Bathinda, and the other at Mata Kaushalya Hospital, Patiala, would come up shortly.
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Squadron Leader DS Tomar cremated with honours
Jalandhar, August 17 The Indian Air Force (IAF) officer had gone missing after his MiG-29 aircraft crashed. The funeral ceremony of the pilot was conducted with military honours at the airbase in the presence of his wife Neha, parents and his one-and-a-half-year old son Ranveer. An inconsolable wife of the fighter pilot was handed over her husband's belongings and the national flag by Commodore Michael Fernandez. Tomar was posted at the Adampur Airbase before his demise. Clad in a cream saree, the officer's wife broke down. She had been hoping against hope that her husband would have survived the crash. Last month, Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Army had jointly launched a search operation for the missing officer in the peaks of Chokang village and Gangsten glacier. But it was the trekkers from Ladakh Scouts and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering who spotted body parts of the fighter pilot, which were later sent for DNA testing. Squadron Leader Tomar was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the IAF on June 22, 2002. He was serving in 47 Squadron as a fighter combat leader. The officer hailed from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. On October 18 last year, two MiG-29 fighter aircraft had flown from Adampur to Leh during an internal exercise of the Western Air Command. While one fighter aircraft had returned, the other flown by Tomar had crashed.
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Entire staff of Joga police station shifted
Bathinda, August 17 Violence had erupted in Mid-June this year following allegations that cows were being slaughtered at a unit in Joga village. Then in July, two persons were killed in police firing in Aklia village that comes in the jurisdiction of the police station. The Senior Superintendent of Poilce, Narinder Bhargav, transferred 28 policemen, including a Sub-Inspector and five Assistant Sub-Inspectors, this evening. The SSP said this had been done for an impartial investigation into the two incidents. Mansa falls in Bathinda parliamentary constituency that is represented by the Deputy CM’s wife, Harsimrat
Kaur.
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Killing of Kapurthala man in US
Jalandhar, August 17 Dalbir Singh, a native of Talwandi village in Kapurthala, was closing his son’s grocery store at Milwaukee at 9 pm when he was reportedly gunned down by unidentified assailants. As he was a member of the Oak Creek gurdwara management committee, his family members believe that he may have been deliberately targeted. They are convinced that his killing is a hate crime. Dalbir Singh had migrated to the US with his wife in 2008 to join his two sons there. He had paid a visit to his native village on the occasion of Hola Mohalla in March this year. His mother Harbans Kaur, sisters Surinder Kaur and Paramjit Kaur and sister-in-law Gurpreet Kaur were inconsolable. Pritam Singh Narangpuri, member of the NRI Sabha, said: “I think Sikhs in the US are not safe. We urge the Central Government to send a deputation to the US and take up the issue of safety of Sikhs with the government there.” Expressing grief over the killing, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the Prime Minister to take up the matter with the US Administration.
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High Court asks police to vacate community halls
Chandigarh, August 17 Taking a sombre view of the reported occupation of two community centers in Mohali by police personnel, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Secretary, Home, Punjab, to step in and ensure their ouster from the two buildings. These directions by a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain came on a petition filed by Mohali-based Ankush Club. The club had sought directions for quashing the action of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), which was constructing a mini community centre on an area earmarked for a playground in Phase 1. It was brought to the Bench’s notice that two community centres situated nearby were under the possession of the Punjab Police. Taking note of the claim, the Bench asserted: “We dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the Secretary (Home), Punjab, to initiate action to get these buildings vacated from the Police Department (if it is found that the buildings so constructed are Community Centres) within three months from today.” The Bench was also told that GMADA’s Regional Planning and Design Committee, at its meeting dated November 9, 2010, had decided to use a vacant piece of land for building a community centre for the residents of Phase I, Mohali. This area had been earlier earmarked for residential houses. GMADA told the court that the “triangular piece of land” was never earmarked as a park and was being used by a tent shop. The Bench also heard that more than 400 Phase I residents had demanded in a memorandum that a community centre be built at the site. “As such, it is in public interest that the community centre be constructed at this vacant piece of land,” GMADA said. The Bench asserted: “It is specifically stated in the reply that the area was never earmarked as a playground, rather in the plan it was reserved as a residential area. “However, the area in dispute being a triangular piece of land was subsequently allotted for construction of a community centre. If that is so, the petitioner has no cause of action to file the writ petition”.
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List illegal marriage palaces: HC
Chandigarh, August 17 The directions came during the hearing of a petition for action on unauthorised marriage palaces that have mushroomed in the area under the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). The high court also made it clear that it would direct action against all the informed marriage palaces in the state. The directions came after GMADA counsel informed the high court that more than 100 marriage palaces were under the GMADA scanner for operating without prior clearance from authorities concerned. The high court gave an opportunity to the aggrieved marriage palace owners to appear before the authority from August 21 to August 28 to establish the legitimacy of their palaces.
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No mining without clearance: HC
Chandigarh, August 17 A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain made it clear that the Deputy Commissioners would be held squarely responsible for any illegal mining activity in their area. In its detailed orders, the Bench directed Punjab Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal to bring the court orders to the Chief Secretary’s notice so that the information is sent to all the DCs. It is clear that operational quarries in the state will not be able to extract minerals without environmental clearance. The order will hit quarries on less than five hectares which could earlier function without obtaining any clearance. A Division Bench issued the directions this morning after the Union Government counsel informed the High Court that the orders passed by the Supreme Court made clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests mandatory. The state will now have to obtain clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to continue with the mining operations. For expediting the grant of permission, the Bench directed the authority to take a decision within 10 days on a representation seeking clearance. The directions came during resumed hearing of a petition filed by a Punjab resident demanding a ban on illegal mining. The Advocate-General contended that the state had sought a clarification of the court orders and that a reply was still awaited. Rebutting the contention, Central Government counsel Onkar Singh Batalvi said the application had already been replied to by the Centre. Referring to the response, the Bench asserted that there was no room for doubt that prior clearance was required to be taken by the government from the authority concerned, even for operational quarries. The directions came soon after the Supreme Court made it clear in the Deepak Kumar versus State of Haryana case that “leases of minor mineral, including their renewal for an area of less than five hectares, be granted by the states/union territories only after getting environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.” In the case decided on February 27, Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Jain, appearing for the ministry, had submitted that “the grant or allotment of mining licence/lease of smaller plots of less than five hectares should not be encouraged from the environmental point of view.”
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Drug peddler from Nawanshahr nabbed in Delhi
New Delhi, August 17 Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, said: “We seized three pistols with 15 live cartridges and heroin, methametaphine (meth.)/ICE/speed and ephedrine from them. A BMW car and a motorcycle have been impounded.” After their arrest, the Delhi Police found a unit in Gurgaon manufacturing drugs. Ranjit, the main accused, came in contact with a Serbian, Juan alias Johan Milan, while in jail at Harare, Zimbabwe. Ranjit and Kulwinder Singh Maan were arrested in 2002 while smuggling 15 persons into Zimbabwe. After Johan came to India, he and Ranjit set up a meth manufacturing unit at Kartarpur in Jalandhar. “Ranjit would procure the raw material (ephedrine) from Sukhvinder, a resident of Hoshiarpur, who is absconding. This unit was later busted by the Punjab Police,” said Yadav. Thereafter, the Punjab Police sought the help of the Special Cell in apprehending Ranjit. On a tipoff, the Delhi Police apprehended Ranjit and Sukhjinder while they were moving about in a red BMW at the Dwarka Link Road on August 11.. Ranjit told the police that he had studied upto Class VI. After that his parents had sent him abroad. He returned to India in the 2002 and met Kulwinder and took to human trafficking. During the same year, they two were arrested at Zimbabwe. Ranjit was released from prison in 2004 and he returned to India. Yadav claimed that Ranjit was again arrested in Delhi alongwithAnil Bajaj and Harwinder Singh, for sending people abroad on forged documents. At Tihar Jail, Ranjit met Sukhjinder, who was serving a jail term for his involvement in a robbery in the Capital. In 2007, Ranjit was released from jail and he started a real estate business in Delhi and Punjab.Yadav said in May 2011, Ranjit and Sukhjinder had shot at seriously injured a resident of Nawanshahr over a property dispute.
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Clerk in DC’s office part of gang selling fake permits
Moga, August 17 Besides issuing fake permits and letterheads, the gang members were earning a fast buck by providing fake certificates, degrees, job letters and driver’s licence. Surjit Singh Grewal, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Moga, said the police had identified six gang members. One of the members was a Ludhiana resident. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been constituted for investigating the case. The SSP said the police had recovered several number plates, 50 “letterheads” of the Ministry of Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, 12 “school certificates” of the Board of Higher Secondary Education, two red lights, 12 driving licences and 12 job letters. Harish Kumar had sold fake documents to AK Khan of Takhanwadh village and a former teacher, Gagandeep Singh of Bhadaur village in Barnala for Rs 6 lakh each, the SSP said. He said the police had yet to investigate the role of those who had purchased the documents.
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Mandi Board chairman accuses staff of fraud
Muktsar, August 17 Lakhowal said, “It is a fact that officials in Punjab Mandi Board misappropriate funds that are provided to them to put up tents and supply drinking water to farmers who come to ‘mandis’ to sell their produce.” Asked about a solution to the problem, he said over the next two years, the Board will take steps so that there was no need to spend on temporary tents. “We have been planting trees at all purchase centres across the state, which will work as sun sheds… In Muktsar district alone, 5,000 trees will be planted,” he said. On compensation to drought-hit farmers, he said he would, in a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on August 21, demand a relief of Rs 500 per quintal for the farming community. “Paddy growers in the state have spent a huge amount on diesel to irrigate their fields. They must be compensated,” he said. He also said the Board had spent Rs 458 crore on repair and face-lifting of mandis in the last five years.
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Newlywed couple jumps to death
Barnala, August 17 The deceased were identified as Jasbir Singh (22) of Sekha village and his wife Ramandeep Kaur (21) of Farwahi village. Both died on the spot. Married six months ago, Jasbir had been running a barber shop at Sekha village, the police said. The couple's relatives said the deceased were passing through a financial crisis, which perhaps forced them to take the extreme step. — TNS
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Eightyfive-year-old Krishan Das and his family had migrated from Pakistan in 1957, leaving behind their flourishing trade for the "safety of their lives".
Fed up with alleged harassment in Pakistan, a number of Hindu families have of late been leaving the neighbouring nation for good, migrating across the border in pursuit of a better life. A similar step was taken by 67 families living in Jalandhar over the past 15 years. They just crossed over, thinking they will live a protected life by being part of a majority community (Hindus are in a minority in Pakistan).
Eleven months after his remains were recovered from the dense forests of Himachal
Pradesh, Squadron Leader Dharmendra Singh Tomar was cremated at the Adampur Air Force station this evening.
Having had a narrow escape at Oak Creek gurdwara in the US, where six Sikhs were killed in cold blood on August 5, Dalbir Singh (57) was not so lucky on the night of August 15.
Digging deep into the issue of environment protection, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today imposed an immediate ban on mining without environmental clearance in Punjab’s operational quarries of up to five hectares.
A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain made it clear that the Deputy Commissioners would be held squarely responsible for any illegal mining activity in their area. In its detailed orders, the Bench directed Punjab Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal to bring the court orders to the Chief Secretary’s notice so that the information is sent to all the DCs.