Ludhiana, March 1
The budget presented by finance minister P. Chidambaram yesterday has been described as “the finest budget of the 11th Five Year Plan that aims to achieve 4 per cent GDP growth in the agriculture sector” by agriculture economists.

According to Dr A.S. Joshi, Head, Department of Economics, Punjab Agricultural University, here the farm credit had been increased to Rs 2.25 lakh crore for the next year.

Integrated maize, pulses and oilseed development programme would be initiated.

He pointed out that seed development programme would also be started to increase agriculture production.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) had been extended to another 130 districts and now it would be operational in 330 districts.

To bring additional nine lakh hectares area under irrigation, a sum of Rs 11,000 crore had been provided.

Out of this, 25 per cent share would be of the union government and the rest 75 per cent would be in the form of loans to state governments.

Dr Joshi said 70 lakh wells for recharging of water had been proposed. It would be beneficial to state farmers.

Full subsidy would be provided for this purpose to small and marginal farmers and 50 per cent to other category of farmers. ICAR water use training programme would be started.

A sum of Rs 300 crore had been provided for this purpose. Water body maintenance had been proposed in the budget for different states.

Fertilizer subsidy had been increased, while import duty on edible oils had been reduced.

Customs duty on irrigation equipment reduced from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

PDS would be strengthened to bring efficiency. Computerisation would be done in this regard. Speculators were the grainers, not the farmers of forward trading because a majority of farmers in India were small and marginal ones.

Ludhiana, March 1
An unusually rainy and relatively cooler February has warmed up the spirits of farmers in the district, who are expecting a bumper wheat crop.

Agriculture experts here maintain that rain is very good for the wheat crop. However, hailstorm at certain places are expected to cause some losses as well. According to records available with Punjab Agricultural University, February proved to be the most rainy and coolest month in the past several years, a boon for the wheat crop sown across the district.

During the past few years with warmer and dry February, wheat matured early leading to decline in the yield.

The relatively cooler temperature during the month will delay the ripening of crop, which would lead to a better yield this time.

The month recorded a rainfall of 76 mms, which is quite high as compared to the previous years. However, during 2003 rainfall in February was much higher. Otherwise, the average rainfall during February remained less than 20 mms, leading to dry and warm weather.

Similarly, temperature during the month also remained low. In the last days of January, the temperature had touched an unusual high of 28 °C, which was quite higher than the average temperature during this period.

The trend continued during the first week of February with average temperature remaining around 22 °C. But the cold spell in the last fortnight brought the average temperature down to around 12 °C, thus bringing cheer to farmers.

The experts maintain that in case warm temperature, as was seen during January, had continued in February also, it would have led to early maturing of wheat, thus bringing down the average yield of the crop. Reason, the experts pointed out, wheat is a low-temperature crop and higher temperature only leads to decline in the yield.

Ludhiana, March 1
Unimpressed by mushrooming management and technology institutes in the state, major companies are now eyeing leading traditional colleges for their human resource requirements. This was stated by Col P.S Chaudhry, general manager (administration and education) of Vardhman Group of Industries, while speaking at a training and placement seminar organised by the PTOSS Centre and Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) at SCD Government College.

He said quality education had become key issue with companies hiring professionals. The industry needed human resources with technical proficiency in various spheres of their profile.

It was necessary to polish these professionals as per the requirement of the industry.

He said because of the growth of textile industry, most of the textile engineers did not stick to one job and moved on to the IT sector for better placements. Also, the quality of textile diploma-holders was not very good as per the requirement of the industry.

The company had thus decided to recruit fresh science graduates from the college to appoint them as textile supervisor.

He said the graduates would be given one-year training and during which they would be given around Rs 6,400 per month as stipend.

After the completion of the training, the hired students would posted as per the pay scale of the group.

Prof R.K. Miglani, Dean (Academic Affairs) of the college, said industry-institute interface was the need of the hour and colleges must come forward to establishing a cell to explore the opportunities for better placement of students.

Prof Ashwani Bhalla, nodal officer of the PTOSS (Punjab Training of Soft Skills) Centre, said 38 students of SC/ST and OBC category had been selected by the group for providing capability enhancement training.

The candidates would be trained in various soft skills and personality development and prepared for competitive programmes.

He said the programme was purely residential and free of cost. The candidates would be given Rs 20 per day as allowance and Rs 1,000 as stipend after the completion of training.

College Principal Dr Malkiat Singh congratulated the centre and the IQAC of the college.

Ludhiana, March 1
HCL, a premier company in the field of computer technology conducted training workshop of MCA and B.Tech students at the campus of Desh Bhagat Institute of Management and Computer Sciences. Centre manager Brijesh, senior manager Ashish Trivedi and business development executive of HCL Archana, were the key note speakers.

They had come to shortlist our students for providing training in their career development and thereafter providing suitable placement. Brijesh and others enlightened the students about career awareness after seeking proper training in IT sector.

After passing through the above exercises they interviewed and shortlisted about 30 students for training and placement for lucrative jobs with a good pay package.

About 150 students along with their faculty members participated in this workshop which continued till late in the evening.

Ludhiana, March 1
The accolades won by Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College at the flower show held at Punjab Agricultural University went on to prove once again that it was not only the quality health care and education in which the institution excelled but nurturing the natural flora was also among its forte.

The entries submitted in the flower show by the institution bagged a first prize and two second prizes in the category of 'succulent foliage and perennial flowering plants in pots' in the flower show which concluded at PAU yesterday.

The 'asparagus' from BJS Dental College and Hospital was adjudged the best and awarded first prize while 'ficus' and 'nulina' each claimed second prizes.

Ludhiana, March 1
CBSE board exam for Class XII began here today. The CBSE chose to start the Class XII board examination with physics paper, nightmare of most of the students. But according to CBSE officials, physics syllabus has been overhauled and the paper would be comparatively easy.

Ludhiana, March 1
Dismissing a suit filed by an unlawful occupant, who sought injunction against PUDA, a local court held that the unauthorised occupant of public land was not entitled to any injunction.

The orders were pronounced by Mr K.K. Jain, Civil Judge, Junior Division, while deciding the case filed by Gagandeep Singh, Rajiv Gandhi Colony, Focal Point, Ludhiana.

It was submitted by the petitioner that he was the owner of one shop measuring 24 square yards. He had claimed that he was put in possession of the said shop many years back. The power connection was installed in the shop in his name. His possession was in the knowledge of PUDA and he was enjoying the possession without any hindrance or obstruction. He was also paying water and sewerage charges to the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation.

The petitioner had further pleaded that it was declared by the government that any person in possession of government land since 1996 would be allotted the land on nominal rates. He was in possession prior to 1990. As per the announcement made by the government through newspapers, he had applied for allotment of the land through the Deputy Commissioner but was not allotted the same.

On the other hand, a senior lawyer defending the case on behalf of PUDA had submitted that the petitioner was in illegal possession of the land. As per law, he was a trespasser. It was well settled in law that a person who sought equity must do equity and the petitioner had not come to court with clean hands.

He had sought injunction from the court with the plea that he was the owner in possession of the suit property. But at the same time he had admitted that PUDA was the owner of the suit property. PUDA was a statutory body formed for the welfare of the public at large. It holds the property as a trustee of the people. When an attempt is made by any individual or group to misappropriate or misuse public property, he is not entitiled to injunction, argued the counsel for PUDA.

After going through the rival contentions, the court observed that the petitioner had himself admitted during cross examination that he never purchased the property from anyone. He was seeking injunction on the basis that he was in settled possession of the suit property so his possession be protected.

“Such a person cannot claim any right whatsoever on the basis of unlawful occupation of public property. Moreover, he failed to prove that he was given possession of the property by any competent authority,” the judge further observed.