Thursday, April 15, 1999
today's calendar
.......
|
REGIONAL BRIEFS | Thursday, April 15, 1999 |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
....... |
||
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Food kiosks a major fire hazard THE erstwhile regal town of Shimla has thick clumps of old houses and now hutments. Some of the constructions are very old and the deodar used liberally in the past is highly inflammable. That is dangerously so around the Mall, Middle Bazar, Lower Bazar and the new hutments mushrooming in between or nearby. In the past a lot of fire accidents had taken place in this town. The flames spread in no time. A minor lapse is enough to set big stacks afire. Extinguishing the blaze takes a lot of patience and time — sometimes not before a lot of damage has occurred. Most of the congestion has been or is caused by subsequent extensions made in between the original houses by their present owners who are seen going to any extent to add a kiosk or a khokha in between the space left blank by the original owners and builders for easy access to firemen coming to douse a blaze and or easy escape route for residents. The Mall was originally designed for leisurely walks. The present day occupants are, however, converting the space into an open eating and drinking ground. Small notches in between the main buildings are being converted many a time without sanction into tea stalls. One such eating place, called Tripti, had caused a lot of damage during 1990. Many of the grand shops and houses destroyed then have not been rebuilt or repaired. Unfortunately, many ad hoc tea and snack vendors of late appear to be forcing their wares, stoves and gas cylinders — sometimes more than one — in small corners not really enough for additional trade. Some of these tea vendors are also seen leaving their burning stoves unattended, to serve tea in adjoining shops. Leaving the fire unattended is dangerous. It is, therefore, highly desirable that tea vendors on the Mall observe fire precautions meticulously. The civic authorities may also check the cooking places in the congested areas against unnecessary accumulation of LPG gas cylinders and or other materials hazardous for safely against fire accidents. Computers for rural school The Government Senior Secondary School at Panjkosi village, near Abohar, will perhaps be the first rural school to impart computer training to students. Not only would computers but also the training staff be arranged by the fertiliser giant, IFFCO. This was announced by IFFCO chairman Surender Kumar Jakhar at a dairy development seminar in the school complex recently. Concerned at the damage to the cotton crop for four consecutive years, Mr Jakhar told youth that farmers who ignored farm scientists' advice resorted to frequent spraying of pesticides on crops. "We have been now left with one alternative: to adopt dairy farming in a planned way on the advice of the experts. The government offered schemes with subsidy benefits. Each youth should buy at least 10 head of cattle, maintain records of the animals' life, provide nutritious diet to animals and have a dairy farm in the field so that dung could be utilised for manure. Emphasising the need for better breeds, Mr Jakhar said the rural cooperative milk producers society would be given a large cylinder to store semen for developing better breeds. Adequate guidance from veterinary doctors would also be available. Transparency would have to be ensured from the village to milk plant level to maintain quality in milk. Mr Hazoor Singh, Managing Director of the Milk Plant, Bathinda, said the per capita availability of milk was still 27 gm and would have to be raised to at least 250 gm. He assured them that marketing would not be a problem for milk producers. The plant had recently received order for supply of ghee from Dubai. Lassi was also being exported. A majority of the milk producers societies were now earning good profits. Mr P.S. Sidhu, state marketing manager, said this cooperative organisation had built 50 community centres all over Punjab, renovated schools and given aid to widows and handicapped persons. Mr Jakhar distributed cheques to societies of the subdivision. Toppers of Panjkosi School were honoured. Experts gave lectures on dairy development and cotton crop. Insurance firm adopts village Residents of Saha village in Ambala district are lucky as the village has been "adopted" by the United India Insurance Company. The divisional office of the company at Ambala launched a campaign for "insurance awareness" among the villagers in February. At the concluding function held at the village, the regional manager of the company, Mr G.D. Shori, presided and distributed insurance policies. A development officer, Mr Ravinder Rajpal, who is spearheading the campaign along with the Divisional Manager, Dr T.C. Gupta, said the aim was to reach the poorest among the poor who had hitherto been ignored by the insurance sector. The thrust of the drive has been to insure girls and women. Mr Rajpal said the Bhagyashree child welfare policy not only covered a girl till 18 years of age but also indirectly promoted literacy as the beneficiary girl was entitled to a grant only if she continued her studies at a school or college. The Rajrajeshwari Mahila Kalyan Yojana was meant for economic security of women. The poor strata of the society would benefit from these policies was obvious from the fact that the annual premium was only Rs 15 for Bhagyashree policy and Rs 23 for Rajrajeshwari policy, which is affordable. So far the company has covered 340 families of the village. The credit for educating and persuading the villagers goes to Mr Jagmohan Chuttani, a resident of the village. The Saha branch of State Bank of Patiala has also sponsored policies for poor girls. The divisional manager felt if the Haryana Government sponsored these policies, it would go a long way in insuring the future of lakhs of poor families without much burden on the exchequer. Voluntary organisations and social welfare bodies could also play a major role, he hoped. Contributed by
K. Lal, Raj Sadosh and Jai Parkash Mann |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Chandigarh | | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
