Plan to develop dairy farming
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 3
The state government has chalked out a comprehensive plan to develop dairy farming and alternative ventures to motivate young farmers to take to other allied occupations instead of the traditional agriculture pattern in the state, says Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Fisheries, Sports and Youth Services Jagmohan Singh Kang.

He said dairy farming had tremendous scope of employment and export of dairy products. He was addressing veterinary scientists and officers of the departments concerned after inaugurating a four-day workshop on consultation on regional control of transboundary animal diseases in South Asia organised by Punjab Agriculture University in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation – Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO-RAP) here yesterday.

Mr Kang said to fully equip these departments to implement this programme, the latest equipment and techniques would be introduced in a big way and all veterinary doctors and other staff would be provided with compulsory orientation training courses to update them about the latest inventions. More than 2,000 vacant posts of veterinary doctors would be filled on a contract basis shortly to enhance the efficiency of all rural veterinary hospitals and dispensaries.

He also disclosed that to meet the shortage of veterinary pharmacists, the government had decided to impart training to 250 students every year. The government had also decided to honour hardworking and outstanding doctors and other staff members during special functions to encourage them. He said adverse entries would be recorded in the ACRs of those having a poor performance, he disclosed.

Elaborating on the other steps, the minister informed that for the first time in the country a legislative framework had been prepared for animal-recording on a modern and scientific basis with the approval of the Establishment of Punjab Herd Registration Authority by the Cabinet and would become a law shortly.

He said the legislation aimed at creating a comprehensive database of all milch animals, keeping record of pedigree and performance of each dairy animal and providing unique identification mark to the registered animal. This would enhance the market value of the dairy animals and provide non-milk income to farmers through the sale of registered animals, semen and embryos, he added.

The minister disclosed that for quick genetic upgradation of our cattle, 1.25 lakh semen doses of superior quality had been imported from New Zealand. The selection of bulls for the import of semen was made on the basis of internationally accepted parameters. He said this imported semen would be used for artificial insemination with the objective of raising the milk yield to the level of 5,000 litres per lactation.

Addressing the workshop, Mr K.S. Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, said the seminar cautioned the farmers against the wasteful exercise of keeping poor quality milk cattle which could never give them good returns and assured the full support of PAU to improve the breed of milk animals and to check the common disease among the animals.

Among others who addressed the seminar were Mr D.S. Bains, Secretary of the department, Dr Juon Lubroth, Senior Officer, Infectious Diseases-EMPRES Group, FAO, Rome, and Dr V. K. Taneja, Deputy Director-General, Animal Science.

ABVP protests against fee hike
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
To protest against fee hike in various colleges, the Ludhiana unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) burnt an effigy of the Punjab government outside the Mini-Secretariat here today.

On the occasion, Mr Subhash Sharma, Punjab secretary of the ABVP, said the Punjab government was trying to curb the student movement by using police force. He condemned the atrocities committed by the Punjab Police in Amritsar and Ludhiana while “playing in the hands of corrupt government officials.” He said no action was taken against the Punjab Chief Minister when he staged dharna along with other ministers outside the PM’s house, but on similar lines when the students were going to submit memorandum to the Minister of Higher Education, all of them were arrested by the police and a case was registered against them.

Mr Sharma warned the government that if it continued with its atrocities on students, it would be difficult to handle the students’ movement. The students said they would contest the case and fight for their rights.

The Ludhiana unit president, Mr Sandeep Kapoor, said the government should not under-estimate the students community. He said the fee hike had become a major tension for the common man as they were now finding extremely difficult to send their children for higher education.

Principals oppose fee hike by PU
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
A meeting of large number of Principals of non-government affiliated colleges of the Ludhiana and Moga area was held here today in Master Tara Singh Memorial College for Women, Ludhiana. In addition to about 25 principals of different colleges, six members of Panjab University Senate, Principal Jaswant Singh Gill, Principal Harmeet Kaur, Principal Tarsem Bahia, Principal B.D. Budhiraja, Principal Gobinder Kaur, Principal (Mrs) S.P. Brar, Dr (Mrs) Madanjit Kaur Sahota also participated in the meeting.

In a unanimously resolution approved in the meeting of the Principals, they disapproved the recent fee and funds hike notified by the Punjab Government as irrational, unreasonable, illegal and devoid of any merit or logic. The Principals noted that under the Acts and Statutes of the university, it was the prerogative of the university bodies such as Syndicate and Senate to lay down the fee and funds structure for the non-government affiliated colleges. In this way government notification was violative of the various provisions of law.

Moreover, Principals asserted that the students and their parents could not afford this astronomical fee hike and which would result in denial of higher education to the rural poor and other weaker sections of the society. The Principals also noted that the government fee and fund structure did not take care of expenses on scholarship, student-aid fund, electricity charges, sports charges, NSS and NCC fee and funds etc. Principals also felt that fee and funds structure of government colleges could not be equated with that of the non-government-aided colleges or, non-government-affiliated colleges.

Workshops start at GCW
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
Workshops at Government College for Women (GCW), arranged by the Kala Sewa Society started on Monday. They will continue till June 14. The students were learning sitar from internationally renowned Pandit Debu Chaudhuri. Equally versatile Pratibha Prhalad took students under her wings to teach bharatnatyam whereas Rajinder Gangani would teach kathak. Painting and sculpting would be handled by Dr SK Kushwaha and Ms Anuneeta. The students keen to learn guitar and organ went to Dinesh Lakhanpal and for Indian classical music to Mohan and Sukhdev Singh Namdhari.

Tabla and pakhawaj would be taught by Fateh Singh Gangani. Those wanting to perfect their bhangra steps would be taught by Bhola Khuleri. Tie-and-dye expert Bashir Khan told the students about how to go about the procedure.

Those with dextrous fingers went to learn craft from Harinder Chadha and for learning pottery to Girija Prasad and Shyama Prasad. Caligraphy is being taught by Anees Siddiqui.

An exhibition of paintings and vaastukala by Dr S.K. Kushwaha, another painting exhibition by Anuneeta were put up for visitors. Bashir Khan had exhibited amazing techniques and designs in tie-and-dye. Pottery pieces created by Girija Prasad and Shayma Prasad were highly individualistic.

KCW students shine in BBA (I)
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
Khalsa College for Women students have done it again. After getting top positions in BCom I and BBA II results, the students have top scored in BBA I results as well that were declared today by Panjab University.

The college students have clinched the top three positions in the district. Enu Arora, a student of BBA I, has stood first in the district and third in the university with 574 marks out of the total 750 marks. Aaina Sadana has obtained second position in the district and 10th in the university with 554 marks. Nupur is third in the district with 540 marks. Securing seventh rank in the district is Ravneet with 517 marks. With a close margin, Deeksha stands eighth with 514 marks. Tamanna has stood tenth with 506 marks.

Workshop for English teachers
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 3
A day-long workshop for English teachers was held at Kundan Vidya Mandir (KVM) here yesterday. About 30 teachers from primary, middle and senior sections attended the workshop. Ms Sharda Kaushik, resource person, guided the teachers on understanding the contents, activities and skills required for teaching different classes. The teachers were given tips on linguistic and cultural enrichment, stylistic enhancement, literary sensibility, personality development and integrated use of language.

Ms Neena Khanna, Principal, also attended the workshop. She said Ms Kaushik had worked with the UGC, CBSE and the CIEFL for framing the curriculum, material production programme and for training teachers.

Book on poems released
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 3
Dewdrops, a book on nature by Dr Jagtar Dhiman, was released by the Vice-Chancellor, PAU, at a function here. The newly published poetry book was discussed at the function.

Dr Aulakh appreciated the efforts made by Dr Dhiman who had tried to link humanity to nature. Coming from an agricultural scientist, it appeared quite natural and even inevitable. He congratulated Dr Dhiman for his praiseworthy effort in imbibing these perceptions in their complete form.

The senior vice president, Punjabi Sahit Academy, said that Dr Jagtar Dhiman was a lone scientist from PAU to have published an anthology of his poems in English. Dr Jagtar Dhiman is a plant pathologist by profession and despite attending to ailments of plants he had proved himself to be a social pathologist through being fully alive to the harsh and stifling realities of our moral and social scenario.

Dr Sarjit Singh Gill said that a sound output was always expected whenever an enterprise was accomplished through a scientific approach. Dewdrops emanating from a scientist poet vindicated this statement, he added.