Ludhiana, October 8
Punjab Agricultural University has developed a new machine for harvesting fodder crops which will be a boon for the dairy farmers. It will harvest, chop and fill the trolley with fodder at the same time.

It has been developed by Dr I.K. Garg, Senior Research Engineer and Head of the Department of Farm Power and Machinery. The co-investigators in the project are Mr Baldev Dogra, Mr C.J.S. Pannu and Mr Anoop Dixit.

While operation, the machine is attached to the rear of the tractor and the trolley is attached to the rear of the machine. It can cut approximately 1.5 m wide strip of fodder at an operational speed of approximately 2 kmph with 35 hp tractor and can cover more than half acre in an hour.

The machine can harvest about 4 to 5 acres with the help of two persons in a day. Whereas in manual harvesting of fodder around eight persons are required for harvesting per acre of crop. It can harvest an average trolley full of fodder of medium crop in just 15 minutes.

The height of the cut is just 7.5 to 10 cm from the ground. The machine is suitable for harvesting bajra, sorghum, maize, cowpea and jowar.

According to Dr Garg, the evaluation of the machine is being carried out and approximately 35 acres have already been harvested. He said the farmers were satisfied with the performance of this machine.

Ludhiana, October 8
Sixteen cadets of 4 Punjab Air Squadron, Ludhiana, will participate in the All India Vayu Sainik Camp to be held in Bangalore from October 12 to 23. These cadets left for the national camp today.

Talvinder Singh , senior wing cadet, will represent the Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pardesh and Chandigarh (HPH&C) Directorate in the skeet shooting competition at national level. He stood first at the directorate level competitions held earlier at Patiala.

Rajkamal Singh, Hanish Gautam, Ritesh Goyal, Pragya and Harbir will represent the HPH&C Directorate in gliding. These cadets will be gliding on Ardhra Glider.

According to Capt H S Sohal, chief gliding instructor, the team was being trained for the past one year at the Sahnewal Air Field. He said that at the moment Ludhiana Air Squadron was the only squadron which was training its cadets for Gliding in Punjab.

Sqn Ldr P P Singh, Commanding Officer 4 Pb Air Sqn, said that other cadets would participate in the drill, cultural and tent pitching competitions. The cadets would, however, not be able to participate in aero modelling competitions because of non-availability of the aero modelling kits.

Ludhiana, October 8
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to pay Rs 1,000 to Mr Ramanjit Singh, a resident of Bhagwan Nagar. He was served wrong bills by the PSEB. The forum has also directed PSEB to pay the excess amount charged from consumer along with an interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum from the date of deposit till the date of actual payment.

The forum has also directed the board to give complete details of consumption of energy for the period from May 20, 1998, to May 30, 2000, to the consumer and to charge the amount due against him on the basis of actual consumption.

According to the complaint, Mr Ramanjit Singh had received four bills during the period form May 20, 1998, to May 30, 2000, which, he alleged, were wrong. He stated before the forum that the first bill was issued for Rs 605 on April 22, 1999, which was deposited. The second bill was issued in the name of Paramjit Singh instead of his name. The meter number mentioned in the bill was also wrong and the status of the meter was mentioned as ‘N’ which meant that reading could not be taken for the period from May 20, 1998, to May 4, 1999, he added.

The consumer approached the board officials for the correction of the bill, but they did not pay any attention to his request. The board again issued a bill of Rs 223 on June 8, 1999, mentioning wrong consumer name and meter number. Another bill of Rs 1,864, including arrears of Rs 1,643, was issued to him mentioning wrong name of consumer and without any meter number. On June 19, 2000, one more bill of Rs 166, was issued by the PSEB without mentioning the meter number, he added. The consumer said he approached the board officials for correction of the bills, but noting was done.

The PSEB pleaded that in one of bills issued to complainant, ‘L’ code was mentioned which meant that the premises was locked when the meter-reader visited the house for taking meter reading and as such bill was prepared on average basis. Moreover, in another bill, ‘N’ code was mentioned which meant that reading could not be taken and the bill was prepared on average energy consumption basis, the board added.

The board admitted that the name on the said bills was wrongly mentioned as Paramjit Singh and the instruction to the computer section for the necessary correction had already been sent.

The forum observed the respondent had been sending bills to the complainant in the wrong name, moreover, the status code ‘N’ was mentioned on the bill while the actual reading had already been taken.