Tarn Taran Diary: Zero-waste management policy
A group of progressive women working for the Inner Wheel Club is active to create awareness about zero-waste management. The Inner Wheel Club is an international organisation with a 100-year-old history. All women who are its members are educated with an intellectual calibre. The members never think of allowing any household item to go waste, either at home or their workplace. Dr Baljit Kaur, president of the club, while talking to Amritsar Tribune, said that they work on the premise of three Rs— Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — to make their work popular. Dr Baljit Kaur said that many attractive show-pieces can be created with the waste items which can be placed in the rooms of houses as decorative items. The organisation is meant only for women. Dr Anita Sood, Dr Monika Gupta, Dr Raman Dua, Dr Sandhiya Sood, Dr Shaily Sood, Dr Gurjinder Kaur, Dr Harsimran Kaur, Ishwar Jot Kaur, Rupinder Kaur and Gurjit Kaur are some of the members of the club. The club organised seminars on zero-waste management at Mata Ganga Girls College, Cupid High School, Majha Public School and Majha College for Women in Tarn Taran town and the participant women and students were motivated to reuse the waste and convert these into show-pieces in seminars organised during the last three weeks. The club is motivating the students and other sections of society not to use plastic in RRR. The members of the club were honoured with saplings in the seminar organised at Majha College for Women by Dr Hardeep Kaur, principal of the college, as saving environment is also a part of the club’s objectives.
Paddy replanting an impossible task for farmers
The state government besides some other religious and social organisations was all set to help the farmers of the flood-affected areas along the rivers Beas and Sutlej by providing them with nursery (paneeri) to replant paddy in their fields but the ground reality is quite different. It is a fact that from village Bhalojla to Muthianwala, along the sides of both the rivers passing through Tarn Taran district, more than 60,000 acres of land has been affected due to floods in about 65 villages. The owners of this huge tract of land have not seen their crops for the last month or so as it is flooded and under water. The land has been inundated with rivers not flowing according to their traditional course. It is also a reality that part of the affected 60,000 acres of land is covered with sand or silt brought by the floods. The present situation does not allow the plantation of paddy or other crops as the productivity of the land has been affected due to the sand and silt that has covered the stretch. The experts are of the view that crops, mostly paddy, fodder, vegetables, sugarcane and chilly have been damaged as the land is still under water and there is no hope for the safety of the crops. Meanwhile, agriculture experts were of the view that the month of August is not a suitable time to plant paddy or basmati. Experts say the present condition is nor fit to plant paddy and the next wheat crop too might get affected. The farmers of the affected areas said that in the present situation, all hopes to sow any of the crop in the present kharif season had been lost and there was no expectation that the land of the affected farmers would become useful to grow crops in the next rabi season. The donors who had planted paddy nurseries for the flood-affected farmers said that there were few takers for the paneeri though it was being offered free of cost.
(Contributed by Gurbaxpuri)
