Ludhiana, May 21
A meeting of the Progressive Fish Farmers Club (PFFC) has been held under the chairmanship of Dr O.S. Parmar, director of Extension Education, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, at Ludhiana.

Addressing the farmers, Parmar said the fishery sector was growing at a higher rate as compared to agriculture and dairy and has more potential for exploitation in Punjab. He said emphasis will be laid on the development of fisheries expertise, improved fish processing technologies and farmers' training.

Fishery experts were advised to attend the farmers' queries pertaining to water and feed testing besides other management practices on a priority basis. He stressed the farmers to get the PFFC registered in order to avail themselves of the facilities from the government and other agencies.

Kamaldeep Kaur, head of the Department of Fisheries Unit, GADVASU, said the PFFC provides a promising platform for a linkage between scientists, farmers and the government. She said that owing to variations in fish farm holdings, lack of optimum technical knowhow, weak management practices and problems of small and marginal farmers fish productivity has been found to vary from 2 to 6 tonne/hectare/year.

She emphasised that every effort will be made to bridge the gap through development and application of technological interventions, to make the fish farming more profitable and sustainable enterprise.

Asha Dhawan, technical expert, answered the queries of the farmers. SK Kansal, coordinated the meeting and informed that bimonthly meeting of the club will be held in GADVASU, Ludhiana, and at farmers' farms alternately.

The executive committee of the club was elected unanimously with Ranjodh Singh Grewal as president, Jasbir Singh Aujala as vice-president, Rajvinder Pal Singh Rana as secretary, Gurpreet Singh Bhadaur as cashier, and Ajit Inder Pal Singh Cheema, Paviterpal Singh Pangli and Malkiat Singh as members.

They also demanded that the fish farming sector should be considered on a par with agriculture with respect to power tariff and supply. 

Ludhiana, May 21
Repeating their stupendous performance in the third consecutive year, BBA IIIrd year students of Khalsa College for Women (KCW) have brought pride to the institution by securing the top six university positions in the examination of Panjab University held in April, 2007.

Niharika Ahluwalia bagged the first position followed by the twin sister Milan Ahluwalia, who bagged the second position. The third position went to Nishta Mehra, followed by Richa Arora in the fourth position, Ragini Khanna in the fifth position and Neha Gupta in the sixth position.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 21
Recognising its achievements in promoting scientific temper and rational thinking among rural masses, the Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation working under the department of science and technology, union government, has accorded permanent affiliation to the science club of Government Senior Secondary School Dehlon.

The central organisation had impressed upon the office-bearers of the club to encourage their members to continue their pursuit and prepare more models and projects in times to come.

According to Baljit Singh Taggar, an office-bearer of the club, B.K. Tyagi, coordinator, VIPNET, had informed the principal Balwinder Singh that the science club of the school had fulfilled the norms laid down for the membership and the institute was first to be affiliated in the Ludhiana district.

Referring to information received from Balwinder Singh, scientific adviser, Taggar claimed that the models and projects prepared by the budding scientists of the school had brought laurels at state and national level competitions during past years. Besides hosting science fairs and exhibitions, the club had been organising seminar and orientation programmes for public also. Affiliation to a central body, besides encouraging young scientists, would also help in gathering more information from their counterparts in neighbouring states.

“While interaction with activists of science clubs of other states will help in exchanging up-to-date knowledge among scientists of wider area, the magazines and project material supplied by the Vigyan Prasar will give new ideas to work on,” Taggar said.

Meanwhile, Balwinder Singh, said Gurdip Singh and Manjot Kaur had been elected president and general secretary, respectively, of the school Science Club.

Other office bearers were: secretary - Ramanpreet Kaur; cashier - Inderpal Kaur; press secretary - Harpreet Kaur; advisers - Baljit Singh and Ravi Maudgil; scientific adviser - Balwinder Singh; in charge - Adarsh Bala; in charge, science library and workshop - Jaspreet Kaur; and educator guides - Vandana and Tejinder Kaur.

Ludhiana, May 21
A dental check-up and screening of more than 80 students was conducted at Love Dale School here today.

Students, their parents and members of the staff were educated on common dental problems of children and given tips on brushing of teeth, oral hygiene and good eating habits.

The dentists stressed that the children ought to be educated to be more careful towards their teeth and take preventive steps against common dental diseases.

Ludhiana, May 21
It was a happy moment for budding designers of the JD Institute of Fashion Technology when models walked the ramp showcasing their outfits during the annual fashion show "Inked" at the Sutlej Club, here, last evening.

The colours, work, embroideries, accessories, latest trends and cuts were beautifully presented on the stage by the models, including Amanpreet Wahi, Kajal Srivastava and Twinkle, in more than 12 rounds.

The first round started with Pallavi Sadana's designs where embellishments, stones and sequence work dominated the outfits. “The colours speak for happiness, health and heaven”.

The second round by Archana depicted bright coloured dresses on stage. A blend of colours with browns, turquoise, purples, greens, blues was showcased in the third round in which models sashayed down the ramp with flowery accessories by designer Avneet.

Young designer Arpana depicted her mood in her collection, based on the theme 'night'.

In the wedding wear rounds, small boys and girls walked the ramp in a confident manner, wearing wedding dresses.

They got a good round of applause by the club members and guests.

The show was choreographed by Kaushik Ghosh and Pratap Faujdar of the Laughter Challenge fame regaled the audience inbetween with his comedy.

The prestigious Sutlej club is regularly being misused to promote business and settle business rivalries. In the last evening's fashion show, one of the jewellery sponsor's rounds, who had paid Rs 40,000 to the organisers, was spoilt by switching off the lights and the sound system. After some argument, the sponsor holding jewellery worth lakhs of rupees, was allowed to showcase his jewellery.

The models walked on the ramp without music to everybody's surprise.

On the other hand, the other sponsor's round (who happens to be a jeweller and one of the office-bearers of the club) stole the limelight when models walked on the ramp to colourful lights and melodious Hindi numbers. The organisers did not take a single penny from the office-bearer of the club.

Pragati Taneja, director, JD Institute, said she had requested the club management to allow them to continue the programme for just two minutes. "But they refused to provide the music system on the pretext that after 10, music could not be played.

After repeated requests, they allowed us to showcase the jewellery", said Pragati.

Sanjay Arora, general secretary of the club, said the show was already late and they had got the orders by the Deputy Commissioner to wind it up as playing loud music was not allowed after 10 pm.