Bathinda, August 10
While the rest of the state may have received a plenty of rainfall, the monsoon appear to have been poor over the Malwa region and farmers here are now demanding that the some districts in the region should be declared drought-affected.

The failure of the South-West monsoon in the region has had a disastrous effect on the kharif crop and farmers are worried about the delay in sowing rabi crop that could spell further doom.

The Meteorological Department, Bathinda, said there is 60 to 70 per cent of monsoon deficient this year till now as compared to last year so far.

The poor rainfall has increased the worries of farmers as it has started affecting paddy and cotton crop in the region. On an average, Punjab receives an annul rainfall of 580 mm and 80 per cent of the rainfall is confined to June, July, August and September.

Wheat and rice the main summer crops (kharif crops), are normally planted with the first flush of rains in June or early July. They need about 120 days in the soil to soak up nutrients, and tending with fertiliser and water. If any part of the process is compromised, there are consequences and now even ten days of August has been passed.

It has already missed the golden period of sowing cotton, from June 15 to July 15. Even if it rains now, yields of cotton in non-irrigated tracts are expected to be very low, while some farmers will have to be resowed. A large number of farmers will have to skip the kharif crop entirely and go for the rabi ones.

Sources maintained that scanty rainfall in the key areas of cotton and groundnut has not only affected the sowing but also likely to affect the yield.

Poor monsoon has also hurt crop outputs, increased food prices and threatened a fragile economic recovery besides spurring increasingly urgent calls for the government action.

Adding to the woes, the authorities have failed to provide eight-hour power supply to the farmers. The farmers claimed that the drought-like situation had hit them hard as they had been forced to irrigate their field with the help of generators.

Sukhdev Singh, a farmer from Tungwali village, said condition for the cotton and paddy crop was quite bad. Due to no rain so far, the fields have been dried up as it is not possible to fully water the crop without rain.

The Agriculture Department officials also admitted that poor monsoon had hit the farmers and there are reports that some farmers had ploughed back their fields in the areas with poor water supply.

They added that situation will be worsened if it doesn’t rain in the coming week, as the paddy needs to remain submerged under water thoroughly and the cotton crop should not face intense heat.

It is worth mentioning that the situation in many states is grim, but the Centre is hesitant in declaring the area as drought-hit as of yet.

Bathinda, August 10
Another shameful and shocking incident of raping an 8-year-old girl has been reported in Jujhar Singh Nagar of the city.

According to the complaint lodged by the victim’s mother, she (the mother) had gone out for some work, while her daughter was alone at home. The accused, who lives near their house, raped her daughter in her absence.

The Cantonment police station has registered a case under Section 376 of the IPC and the Protection of Children Act 2012 against Raman Kumar Paswan, a resident of Jujhar Singh Nagar.

Police officials said the accused is on the run so far, and a police party is searching for him.

Bathinda, August 10
Increasing vegetable prices have hit hard the backbone of Paramjit Singh, who runs a shop at local Dhobi Bazaar market in Bathinda. However, everyday he makes a new plan to get start any new side business to his housewife Sukhmanpreet Kaur. But at the end, there is no solution he could find as investment becomes a problem.

Same condition is being faced by everyone and all are just waiting for “acche-din” (good days) that are yet to come for them. The inflation has not stopped and the prices of vegetables had crushed economy of many families.

Daily wagers had stopped dreaming of purchasing any vegetable that cost more than Rs 40 per kg and some even had changed their diet with rice as their main food. The budget of middle class families had too got fractured by managing the daily diet and vegetables cost that had forced them facing difficulty to manage the household.

Prices of vegetables and fruits have gone up. The prices of tomatoes and onions have brought tears in eyes of consumers. Tomatoes though had witness a bit down in price but had only given a little relief with Rs 50 per kilogram from Rs 80.

Onions are stable at Rs 40 to 50 per kg while cucumber had touched to Rs 50 from Rs 30 last week. Similarly, capsicum for Rs 40 per kg, ginger for Rs 120 per kg, brinjal Rs 30 and potato for Rs 30 had not seen any change since last week. However, cauliflower had gone up to Rs 60 from Rs 50 per kg last week, French beans touched Rs 40 from Rs 30 last week and the peas for Rs 100 from Rs 80 per kg.

Consumers bargain and rising prices of vegetables had also left the shopkeepers and hawkers in dilemma with finding a way to save their profit. “The vegetables have daily consumption but the rising prices had hit our business. Moreover, the private malls had too started selling them at only bit lower price as they get mass purchase from farmers. This had badly affected as consumer bargains with us a lot and we hardly manage to avoid them,” said Krishan Kumar, a shopkeeper.

Sukhmanpreet Kaur, a housewife, said, “Commonly used vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and onions are so costly that we are finding it difficult to save a penny at the end of month. The prices of pulses and cereals are already more than costlier. We don’t find any way what to eat and what to leave. Now, I avoid using tomatoes in vegetables and salad even it had come down to Rs 50 but it is still costlier. The government should take necessary steps to check the rising prices or the income of people should be raised. By beating the drum of “ache din aane wale hain” no good days will come and soon the people of country will get frustrated and corrupt. Our complete budget is ruined and we hardly manage to maintain the diet of whole family.”

Bathinda, August 10
The Mid-Day Meal Cooks’ Union activists who were arrested by the Bathinda police in Talwandi Sabo yesterday, have accused the police and the state government of harassing the arrested women.

“We were detained by the police for our bid to highlight the plight of mid-day meal cooks across the state and instead of listening to our grievances, the government manhandled us through policemen,” said the state president of the Mid-Day Meal Cook Workers’ Union, Harjinder Kaur.

She stated that around 70 workers were taken to the Kotfatta police station from Talwandi Sabo when they were on way to submit a memorandum to the government representatives yesterday around 12 noon.

“Amidst unbearable hot weather, we all were squeezed in the private buses ‘hired’ from the educational institutes by police and were taken to the Kotfatta police station,” said the state president. She said the police refused to answer any of their queries and the women remain lodged behind the bars at police station till 6.30 in the evening.

“Since majority of the union members were from far off districts other than Bathinda, they failed to get any public transportation in the evening and reached their respective abode late night,” she said adding that if the women were at fault, the police would have registered a case or entered their names into the police log book. But if they were innocent, then an action should be taken against the police for wrongful detention. She lamented that most of the women arrested by the police yesterday were above 40 years of age group and could not bear the unbearable heat and humidity and fell sick due to the irresponsible behavior of the policemen.

She pointed out that if the public does something wrong then the government deals with an iron hand. But when the government does blunders no action is taken.

The workers are demanding hike in their monthly perks on the lines of the monetary benefits released in Haryana and Chandigarh. They said despite raising their voice, the government was mum over the issue and nothing had been done to resolve their long pending issues.

The workers said the Haryana government pays Rs 2,500 per month to the mid day meal cooks, Chandigarh give Rs 2,600 per month while the Punjab government give mere Rs 1,200 per month.

The workers announced that they would launch a tirade against the issues of favoritism, bias, wasteful expenditure, pick and choose policy and other issues against the Punjab Government during their protest in Patiala on August 17. The state president said that the workers associated with their union would come from Ropar, Mohali, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Sangrur districts to participate in protest at Patiala.

Kotfatta police station SHO, Paramjit Doad, when contacted said he was not aware about the reason behind the arrests of the union members. “There was no police action initiated against them and they were released in the evening as the women made unlawful assembly in view of the election code of conduct at Talwandi Sabo,” Doad said.

Bathinda, August 10
Campaigning to the forthcoming bypoll in the Talwandi Sabo Vidhan Sabha constituency remained a low-key affair on Sunday. Candidates of the prominent political parties, including the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) concentrated on personalised meetings with the electorate at different places in the constituency.

The campaign scenario today was bereft of the top party leadership of the respective parties today. PunjabChief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) completed their respective three-day tour on Saturday evening. President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), Partap Singh Bajwa, today, was away to attend the Rakhar Punia fair in Baba Bakala because of political importance of the annual event.

SAD candidate, Jeet Mohinder Sidhu, today, visited Bangian villages near Talwandi Sabo. He spoke about the “ouster of the Congress by massive margin which showed that there were no chances of its comeback to power in the near future. The clarity in concept of administration for the public welfare by Narender Modi showed public had reposed faith in a leader who will around for a long time.”

Congress candidate, Harminder Jassi, concentrated on public disillusionment with the SAD government on its unkempt election promises. He said the interaction with public showed they had absolutely no hope under the current government set-up and they will show it during polling. The PPP president, Manpreet Badal, today toured Duneywala, Bhagwangarh, Malwala and Manwala villages seeking votes in favour of Jassi.

Bathinda, August 10
Declared the fifth municipal corporation after Amritsar, Jalandhar,Ludhiana and Patiala, the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) has always been the green eyed baby of the state government. Falling in the parliamentary constituency of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal it has always been given the best of attention.

However, with the maiden body of the MCB dissolved in May 2013, the city lacks representatives to raise the concerns of the residents before the officials concerned. In the absence of elected representatives, the (babus) are running the show of carrying out the developmental and long-pending works.

Also repeated change of guard at the Municipal Commissioner level, too, has hit the working of the corporation.

The latest outcome to fall short of the expectations of the residents, has been the strike of garbage collectors (government, on contract and that of private waste collecting company) that continued for five days plunging the city into piles of garbage strewn around on the roads.

• What in your opinion are the actual problems being faced by the city residents in view of the unprecedented delay in the elections for the Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB)?
• What are the solutions and efforts which the state government or officials of the district administration concerned may make to bring respite to the residents? 

Bathinda, August 10
A meeting of the State Executive Committee of the PSEB Engineers Association was held to decide further course of action of their ongoing agitation for resolution of pending issues, including violation of tripartite agreement.

There was resentment among the executive committee members regarding repeated postponement of meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on June 19.

Keeping in view the positive response by the Deputy Chief Minister towards the demands of the engineers and the interests of power consumers, particularly from agriculture sector, the association on June19 had suspended ‘work to rule’ and deferred other forms of agitation affecting the consumer services and the power supply like announcement of date for one day ‘mass casual leave’.

The meeting with Deputy Chief Minister has been postponed thrice and is now slated to be held on August 13.

The members alleged that even the process for appointment of new directors of the PSPCL in place of the directors whose tenure has expired has not been started so far after the lapse of more than one-and-a-half-month although the government has assured that the appointment process will be started within 10 days.

Executive members condemned the biased and partisan behaviour of the PSPCL management towards the power engineers. The members expressed concern that the PSPCL management is keeping the issues related to engineers pending despite clear-cut written agreement to resolve the issues in a time-bound manner.

There is an acute shortage of staff in the field which is adversely affecting the consumer services and the management instead of finding the solution to the problem is issuing charge sheets to the field engineers on trivial issues in spite of grave working conditions.

The PSPCL management has created the mess which led to less supply of coal to the state-owned thermals from its own captive coal mine by PANEM. Instead of in-house reform initiatives unscrupulous middlemen are being invited through outsourcing.

The management of the PSPCL is deliberately denying the meeting to PSEB Engineers’ Association.

The executive committee has decided to hold protest meetings on August 11at all the regional (Circle) headquarters of Punjab to protest against the repressive attitude of the PSPCL management towards power engineers.

The association has decided to resume the agitation from August 15 onwards in case the PSPCL management do not hold immediate meeting with the Association.  

Bathinda, August 10
A section of protesting farmers and other labour unions today joined hands to fight against their long-pending demands and to register protest against the passing of the Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Bill 2010 by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

BKU (Dakonda), BKU (Ekta-Ugraha), BKU (Krantikari), Khet Mazdoor Union, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Bhatta Mazdoor Union and others lodge a protest against the non-fulfillment of the promises made by the state government.

The members of these unions gathered at Rampura village and burnt the effigies.

The leaders said the Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed the Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Bill 2010 on July 22, to curtail the protests of unions.

The bill would curb the protesters from taking out protest march, stop gathering of people, holding strike and blocking the railway lines in a democratic and peaceful manner.

“The bill is also aimed at further exploitation of the poor, to suppress the voice of the discontent, encourage privatisation and to take to task those, who point out fingers at the wrong works done by the state government.The bill would further help in granting more powers to the government and the police to send the protesters to jails.” said the leaders.

The protest was taken out by Buta Singh Burj Gill, Baldev Singh, Sukhmandar Singh, Balwinder Jethuke, Gurdeep Singh, Jagjit Singh, Gurnam Singh and other office bearers and members of different unions. 

Bathinda, August 10
Delay in laying of the sewerage pipes in few streets on Beer Road today forced the area residents to raise their voice against the SAD-BJP led Punjab government.

People, residing in Kalgidhar Nagar, situated on Bir Road said sewerage pipes were laid in most of the streets except for the street numbers 12, 13 and 14.

They said the work of laying the pipes in these streets was pending for the last over two years. Raising slogans against the Punjab government, Jasvir Singh, Ajaib Singh and Harbans Singh said the tenders to lay the sewerage in these streets, were floated by the department concerned around two years ago.

They said the delay has led to resentment among the people residing in the locality.

They said that though there was some digging in the middle of the streets to discharge the flow of water of the houses but nothing was being done to lay the sewerage pipes.

Mahinder, Jagraj, Baljinder, Darshan, Mahinder, Sukhdev, Bhupinder and Resham Singh said that they would intensify their stir in coming days if the authorities fail to take any action in this regard.

Talwandi Sabo (Bathinda), August 10
Despite deploying heavy police force, patrolling and the CID officials in Talwandi Sabo, the protesters continued to bluff and manage to convey their message against the Punjab Government to the masses.

A group of around a dozen PRTC Workers’ Union Azad, Patiala, today not only distributed pamphlets against the SAD-BJP government—highlighting the alleged anti-workers stance adopted by the state government—but also attracted a large number of audience in the form of local residents, listening protesters grievances.

“It took some time to reach the message to police, being Sunday today, and the policemen took some time to arrive on the scene. In the meanwhile, the protesters have already completed their task,” said Paramvir Singh, a passerby listening anti-government slogans of the PRTC workers.

A police team, headed by DSP Talwandi Sabo, tried to take the protesters into their custody by passing orders to the agitators, but failed. More policemen were called at the spot to put extra pressure and force to dislocate the protesters or to take them to the police station.

“We just wanted to show that mere deployment of the police force will not deter us from sensitising the masses about the high-handedness of the state government. We also knew that this was the right time to raise our voice for the long pending demands”, said one of the arrested members, Satnam Singh.

Those arrested by the police raised said that their demands include regularisation of the employees of the PRTC, transfer of a Chandigarh-based general manager and withdrawal of the orders of adding new buses of Kilometer Scheme into the existing fleet of buses.

The PRTC workers said they would intensify their stir in coming days to highlight the sorry state of affairs in the PRTC by making the electorate clear about the nefarious designs of the Punjab government which is pushing their department into losses.