AGRICULTURE

Seminar on WTO’s impact on agriculture
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 14
The World Trade Organisation WTO’s coming had become a reality and there was no alternative before Indian farmers and industrialists, except to accept the challenge and benefit from the opportunities that have been provided to them in the global market. The key factor to success in the global market was continued emphasis on quality improvement and cutting down of operation costs.

These views were expressed by experts at a seminar, ‘Impact of WTO on Agriculture Engineering Perspective’ held here yesterday. Mr Gurcharan Singh Ghalib, local MP, was the chief guest and Dr K.S. Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) presided over the function. Mr Jagjit Singh Ghungrana, Chairman, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) was the guest of honour on this occasion.

Mr Karnail Singh Sivia, chairman, Ludhiana Local Centre, in his welcome address said, “The deliberations at the seminar would give birth to new concepts in the minds of engineers that would further help them understand the implications of global competition.”

He informed that the purpose of the seminar was to recognise how could the queries of farming community, that had surfaced due to the implementation of the WTO agreement, be satisfied.

Dr T.S. Taneja of PAU informed that most of the people in the state were not aware about the implications of WTO. On the other hand, governments of developed countries had not only created awareness among concerned persons, but also prepared strategies to protect their home industries. There was a need to double our efforts to catch up with them as soon as possible.

Prof Pritam Singh Rangi, Senior Economist (Marketing), Department of Economics and Sociology, PAU, said, “The coming days will be very hard for the state farmers as the minimum support price for a number of crops is much higher as compared to their international price. State agriculture cannot survive without the active support of state and central governments.”

He informed that though Indian agriculture was below the announced tariff on agriculture products under the WTO the government was showing extra ordinary zeal in opening up the domestic market for foreign competitors which may prove harmful for the farmers. He suggested certain safeguards such as increase in tariff to compete with the WTO challenges.

EDUCATION

Rs 50 cr for repair, construction of school buildings
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 14
“It is unfortunate that in spite of the fact that one fourth of the total salary paid to the government employees is spent on teaching community alone, even then the results are not satisfactory. Students from other than government schools manage to get admissions in professional courses while government school students lag behind”, said Jathedar Tota Singh, Minister for Education, Punjab, while addressing a gathering at Chanarthal village in the district at a function of upgrading the village school from secondary to senior secondary school.

Expressing concern over the deplorable condition of the government schools, he said whenever he had visited or checked any school in the state the school headmasters, principals and even class teachers have failed to give satisfactory reply regarding their students. Citing an example he said during his visit to Government Dyalpur Sodian secondary school in Patiala district, the principal failed to tell how many students were in matric, Class XI and even in Class VIII. There were only three students in Science group in that school while five lecturers were posted their.

He said the department has taken various steps to improve the standard of the education in schools and keeping this in mind the transfer policy of the teachers has been formed. He said in future only those teachers would be posted on the station of their choice whose performance would be more than 50 per cent in maths and science subjects and 65 per cent in languages and for the transfer of the head of the school the school results should be 60 per cent. He said the department have received 15,000 applications for the transfers upto April 30. He said only those teachers would be promoted, whose last five years record would be positive.

He said the government will spend Rs 50 crore on the repair and construction of school buildings this year as compared to Rs 30 crore spent last year. He also announced a grant of Rs 2 lakh to the school.

COURTS

PSEB demand rejected
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 14
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has rejected the demand of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) for the recovery of Rs 63,755 from Mr Gurdip Singh, a resident of Anandpur village.

The forum directed the PSEB to restore the connection of the complainant within a week of recovering the due amount, excluding the disputed sum. The forum also directed the board not to slap reconnection charges or some other charges on the complainant.

The board had removed the electricity meter from the complainant’s house and replaced it with a new one, in his absence without prior notice. Mr Gurdip alleged that the board had not disclosed any reason for removing the meter. After that, he received a bill for Rs 66,461 on October 28, 2000, that did not include the details of charges. The consumer alleged that the bill was illegal as the basis of issuing it had not been disclosed.

He sought that the demand be quashed and the board be directed to pay a compensation.

The board said the meter had been inspected on basis of an information regarding power theft in the area, on September 5, 2000. It said the ME seals had been tampered with.

During the testing of the meter by standard heater-load-and-stop-watch method, it was showing a 75 per cent less consumption of energy. The board said, to obtain specific proofs of power theft, the meter had been replaced with new a one.

The old one was sent to ME Laboratory. The laboratory tests proved that the current coil had been reduced and the meter was recording less consumption of energy. The board said, as the theft of energy had been proved, Rs 63,755 was added to the bill.

The forum said the documents produced in the court showed that the tests reports and the laboratory reports had not been signed by the complainant or his representative.

The consumer did not receive any notice to be present at the time of checking. The forum said the PSEB had violated the rules, for which, its demand should be quashed.