EDUCATION

Agricultural varsity gets Rs 42 lakh project from NATP
Kanchan Vasdev
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 15
In a move that is aimed at providing a boost to the research activities of the Department of Home Science Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), the National Agriculture Training Programme (NATP) has granted a project of Rs 42.75 lakh to the department to work on empowerment of women in agriculture.

With the project, the department has become one of the eight centres choosen by the NATP all over the country to work on the project. The department would work for three years on this project and help the women in agriculture to be self sufficient and adopt latest techniques.

According to Dr G. Goyal, Head of the department who is the Cooperating Centre Principal Investigator, main objectives of the project would be the identification and promotion of need-based drudgery, adoption of tested technology in agriculture and animal husbandry, to access the impact of drudgery reducing technologies and introduce entrepreneurship activities for the women.

She said the team comprising Dr V.Randhawa, Associate Professor, and Dr S. Roy, Professor, and herself would work on the project for three years and send the final report for compilation to the NATP. The department would select two blocks in a district which would preferably be Ludhiana for the execution of the project. As many as 90 women from a cluster of four villages each from each block would be shortlisted and made the members of the project, she said. The department was yet to shortlist the women as the project was being sanctioned to them only recently. One village out of the cluster of four would be choosen as the control group that would be controlling the activities of rest of three villages, she added.

Women selected from three villages of a block would be trained in helping themselves in the field of agriculture. The women would be selected on the basis of preliminary activities that must involve their role in agriculture and animal husbandry.

Dr Goyal said that as the PAU was the one of the six coordinating centres all over the country, it would help the women adopt various techniques used for cultivating and harvesting and make their life simpler.

She said that the impact and results of the projects would be seen when it would be finished and nothing could be said at the moment as the team had to play field-based roles and certain difficulties were obvious. This would give good results ultimately as the selected women would learn to use certain technologies that would be useful for these women in the long term, she added.

Under the project, the women would also be taught to redesign and improvise their tools themselves. The other centres where this project is being undertaken are Udaipur University, HAU, Hisar, IARI, New Delhi, Maharashtra University, Bhubaneshwar University and Bangalore University. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research would be the mission centre.

PAU students hold rally
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 15
More than 200 NSS volunteers belonging to various colleges of Punjab Agricultural University, including the College of Agriculture, Home Science and Agricultural Engineering took out an impressive rally here today to create awareness amongst residents against evils and AIDS.

The rally, flagged off by Dr K.S. Verma, Programme coordinator on behalf of the Director Students’ Welfare, PAU, passed through the PAU campus, localities of Maharaj Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Maya Nagar, Shahid Udham Singh Nagar, Kitchlu Nagar, Haibowal Khurd and Rishi Nagar. Led by the programme officers Dr H.S. Jassal, Dr R.K. Kalra and Mr S.S. Sooch, volunteers carried placards and banners and shouted slogans to spread the message in the community, especially the youth.

According to Dr K.S. Verma, Programme Coordinator, PAU the rally was a part of the nationwide programme of the National Service Scheme organisation under the theme “Youth for healthy society” and such rallies would be held in the adopted villages Pamal and Pamali adopted by the NSS organisation of the PAU. Earlier the NSS volunteers carried out mass eradication cum uprooting of Parthenium (Congress grass) from the experimental area as well as residential areas of the university wherein the volunteer made use of the polythene bags as gloves for uprooting these most poisonous weed plants.

COURTS

PSEB told to refund payment
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, October 15
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has quashed a Rs 84,567 Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) bill for theft of energy issued to Mr Amanpreet Singh, a resident of Shiv Puri here. The forum has directed the PSEB to refund the amount that has already been deposited and pay an interest at the rate of 12 per cent from the date of the deposit to the day of the payment.

Mr Amanpreet Singh received a PSEB memo, where the board had demanded Rs 84,567 from him. According to the memo, the consumer had been charged with a theft of energy as the seals of his power-consumption meter had been found to be tampered with and there had been a 76.84 per cent reduction in the meter speed. The complainant had told the forum that the charge was baseless.

The consumer had demanded full details of the offence, but the PSEB officials failed to supply these. They told him that his meter was running slow and his account had been overhauled. The consumer was allegedly forced to deposit the amount in instalments. His power-supply connection was disconnected and restored only after he deposited Rs 3,383, first instalment of the fine, on December 20, 2000. He protested before paying every instalment.

Mr Amanpreet said the demand had been illegal as it had not been raised according to rules of the PSEB. He said he had not been issued a notice to be present at the time of checking, though such a notice was mandatory. The consumer also alleged that the checking had been false.

The PSEB’s plea was that the meter had been checked in a door-to-door drive, where the seals of the consumer’s meter had been found to be tampered with. When the meter was checked at site with standard heater-load-and-stop-watch method, it was recording a low consumption of energy by 75 per cent. After this, the meter was properly packed and sealed and sent to the ME Laboratory for computerised checking. The laboratory report supported the earlier claim and added that the current coil of the meter had been cut. The respondent said it was a case of measured theft.

The forum said, according to the documents produced, there appeared to be no evidence that the meter had been packed and sealed properly. “Moreover, the consumer was not asked to be present at the time of the checking. The laboratory report does not bear the signature of the consumer or his representative, which is mandatory,” the forum said.