Wheat procurement arrangements reviewed
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 5
The Reserve Bank of India has released Rs 3,050 crore for wheat procurement for the month of April and another Rs 3,200 crore will be made available in the beginning of May. The government has sufficient funds to meet the procurement requirements. This was stated here today by Mr B.R. Bajaj, Principal Secretary, Department of Food and Supplies, who held a meeting at the Circuit House here this morning.

Mr Bajaj told the district heads of the procurement agencies that the government was keen to have a smooth procurement and each grain of wheat meeting with the specifications should be sold above the MSP. He further stressed that wheat should be cleaned by power cleaners and arhtias should be bound to submit the purchase bills to the agencies within 24 hours of the purchase so that agencies could make the payment within 24 hours. Enough funds will be placed at the disposal of the procurement agencies. He informed that surprise check of mandis shall be carried out and strict action taken against the defaulters. Complaints redress committees will be formed at the mandi level for immediate redress of complaints of the farmers. The agencies will keep purchasing in the allotted mandis till the arrival of the last grain of wheat.

Dr G. Vajralingam, Director, Food and Supplies, emphasised that farmers should bring fully ripe, dried and clean grains to the mandis. There should be strictly no combine harvesting during the night. Orders have already been issued by all the Deputy Commissioners banning operation of combine harvesters during night. A special campaign be launched to ensure education of the farmers. The Director, Food and Supplies, reviewed the arrangements regarding posting of staff, availability of gunny bags, crates, tarpaulins and storage space with each head of the procurement agency of all the five districts.

He stressed that the mandi board should ensure availability of drinking water, shelter and power in the mandis for the farmers and commission agents. Day-to-day lifting of foodgrains from the mandis should be ensured. All available means of transport like trucks and tractor-trailers should be deployed for early clearance of the mandi yards. 

Farmers flay rabi crops prices
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 5
The Kirti Kisan Union, the Punjab Kisan Sabha, the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta) and many other farmers’ bodies organised a demonstration here today to express resentment against “non-remunerative” prices of wheat and the other rabi crops.

In a memorandum to the government, the bodies criticised the Union Government for announcing minimum support prices of various rabi crops that “did not even cover the cost price of each crop”. Various speakers at the rally urged the Punjab government to “make up for the loss that farmers would suffer on this account”. They said the ruling party’s election promises included a Rs 30 per quintal bonus on wheat crop.

Farmers criticised the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), Mr Parkash Singh Badal, for blaming the Congress government for the “unattractive” MSP. However, they also said the Congress government was responsible for failing to properly represent their case.

Those who addressed the protesters included Mr Hardev Singh Sandhu, Mr Rachpal Singh, Mr Kartar Buani, Mr Himmat Singh, Mr Tarlochan Singh Jhordan, Master Jagir Singh Hathur and Mr Gurcharan Singh Acharwal.

PAU awards teachers, students
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 5
Dr J.S. Hundal, Professor and Head, Department of Vegetable Crops, was awarded the gold medal for the development of chilli hybrid varieties, Mr S.S. Cheema, Professor of Plant Pathology, was given a prize of Rs 5,000 and was awarded the meritorious teacher award at the annual convocation of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) by the Chancellor and Governor of Punjab, Lieut.-Gen. J.F.R. Jacob (retd), today.

Dr Yog Raj Chanana, senior horticulturist, and Dr Tarsem Lal, senior vegetable botanist were jointly given the Hans Raj Pahwa award for 2000.

The Dr M.S. Randhawa best book award was given away to Dr M.L. Sood, Department of Zoology, for his book entitled Reptilian Nematodes from South Asia. Dr Sukhdev Singh prize for essay and oration was given away to Mr Kehar Singh, Mr Harmandeep Singh, Ms Sudha Prasad and Mr Sajeesh.

Following is the list of students who received the various medals.

The Dr Avtar Singh Atwal gold medal for 1997 to Ms Bindu Arora, all-round beat students in master’s programmes of this university during 1997.

The Dr Avtar Singh Atwal gold medal for 1998 to Ms Amandeep Kaur, all-round beat students in master’s programmes of this university during 1998.

The Dr Avtar Singh Atwal gold medal for 1999 to Mr Gagandeep Kaushal, all-round beat students in master’s programmes of this university during 1999.

The Dr Avtar Singh Atwal gold medal for 2000, Ms Gurpreet Kaur, all-round beat students in master’s programmes of this University during 2000.

The Sardar Kartar Singh Kahlon gold medal for 1997 to Ms Deepinder Kaur, best all-round students in master of Science (agriculture) programme for 1997.

The Sardar Kartar Singh Kahlon gold medal for 1998 to Mr Ranjit Singh, best all-round student in master of science (agriculture) programme for 1998.

The Lala Sri Ram Ji gold medal for 2000 to Mr Mayak Jain, master of business administration programme completed in 2001.

The Sardar Bahadur Lal Singh gold medal for 2000 to Ms Sukhjit Kaur, master of science (pomology) programme completed in 2000.

The Dr S.C. Dutt gold medal for 2000 to Ms Kiranpreet Kaur, master of veterinary science program completed in 2000.

The Dr Gurbakash Singh Gill gold medal for 1999 to Ms Parminder Kaur, best all-round student in master of science (agronomy) programme during 1999.

Dr Gurbakash Singh Gill gold medal for 2000 to Ms Mandeep Kaur, best all-round student in master of science (agronomy) programme during 2000.

The Dr K. Kirpal Singh gold medal for 2000 to Mr Sandeep Singh Chadha, best all-round student in master of science (food technology) programme during 2000.

The Bhai Bal Mukand gold medal for 2000 to Ms Suman Rani, master of science (physics) programme completed in 2001.

The Iqbal Singh Dhillon gold medal for 2000 to Ms Monika Sharma, master of science (plant breeding) programme completed in 2001.

The Dr Sardar Singh gold medal for 1999 to Mr Vikas Jindal, master of science (entomology) programme completed in 2000.

The Dr Narinder Singh Randhawa gold medal for 2000 to Mr Ravinder Pal Singh, master of science (soils) programme completed in 2000.

The Dr P.N. Thapar gold medal for 1999 to Ms Mandeep Kaur, best all-round graduate of Punjab Agriculture University.

The Dr M.S. Randhawa medal for 2000 to Ms Sukhjit Kaur, best essay on evolution of life during the year 2000.

The Master of Journalism to Mr Manmeet Singh.

City may have regional centre
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 5
The initiative taken by the Senate members of Ludhiana, Panjab University, of exploring possibilities of establishing a regional centre at Ludhiana for imparting education is commendable. The centre would help produce professionally trained personnel in globally important and new emerging areas like information technology, environmental monitoring and pollution control. A meeting to discuss this possibility would be held on April 6 at the Ramgarhia College for Women.

Since several industries with a global presence are located in Ludhiana and keeping in view the socio-economic needs of the area, Panjab University intends to probe the feasibility of this proposal involving leading industrial groups of the city.

Dr K. N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, is taking keen interest in the execution of the project and has consented to be personally present to help in the deliberations.

Dr S. C. Jain, professor and chairman, Department of Chemical Engineering and Technical, Dr S.S. Kumar, former chairman, Department of Botany, Panjab University, will share their expertise, informed Mrs Harmit Kaur, principal, Ramgarhia College for Women.

SPORTS

Police sports meet opens
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 5
The Ludhiana Police District Sports Meet began at the police lines here today. This is for the first time that such games, which involves teams of various police stations and zones competing with each other in the discipline of volleyball, kabaddi, relay race and tug of war championships, are being held here.

Explaining the objective, SSP Harpreet Singh Sidhu told Ludhiana Tribune that the games have been organised to provide a break to the police personnel from their routine duty hours. The sports activity was aimed at providing them relaxation from the stressfull life and encourage interaction among the cadres, he said.

He said he had introduced the scheme in other districts and had received good results. Recent surveys by some psychologists said the police personnel were under lot of stress and some recreational activity was must for them.

The winners would be given awards on April 7, he said.