Tarn Taran Diary: Institutions with rich heritage value conserved by Christians

The Christian community in Tarn Taran district has the pride of preserving its one and a half century old institutions with religious, social, cultural and heritage significance. In the district, the community at present has about 1 per cent of the population, according to the 2021 Census.

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The community has made much contribution in the field of health and education besides its efforts to maintain its religious duties. The St. Thomas Church, Tarn Taran, is one such place of great respect. The structure of the church building has been maintained in the way it was constructed in 1880. The ‘Gharial’ (bell) installed at the top of the building has a unique old-age shape, though due to some technical defects, it has become non-functional, said Pastor Sanuel Mattu. The church is the centre-point for celebrating Christmas towards the year-end week with a large gathering. There was a well equipped and open space spread in acres of land for a ‘Leprosy Home and Hospital’ where lepers from different parts of the country used to come for treatment, free of cost, from where only medicines for skin diseases are given at present. These days, as many as 30 families of lepers with their about 100 family members are residing at the nearby established ‘Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji Ram Mandir, Leprosy Colony, Tarn Taran’. There was a well reputed St. Mary’s Hospital in Tarn Taran providing multi-purpose medical services decades back. The hospital was given recognition for admission to ANM course too which has been stopped for one or the other reason. The St. Mary’s Secondary School, Tarn Taran, is known for its remarkable services in producing the maximum number of students to be admitted to higher education in fields like medical and engineering for decades. The SEDP (Social-Economic and Development Programme) has provided notable social service.

PAU’s Farm Advisory Service Centre

The Farm Advisory Service Centre (FASC) of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has been serving the farmers of Tarn Taran district for more than 10 years. Its service has been praiseworthy. The centre, under the administrative control of Directorate of Extension Education, PAU, has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting adaptive research trials on new varieties, production, protection and post-harvest management technologies given by the research system of PAU. It also helps to identify adoption problems of new technology recommended for the farmers. Feedback required to change or modify the technology suitable for farmers is also provided by the staff of this centre. The experts of various disciplines of the FASC, such as agronomy, plant protection and horticulture, act as resource persons in various training camps organised at the district, block and village level. The FASC has also been entrusted to conduct frontline demonstrations in the fields with a view to convince the farmers regarding the soundness and practicability of the technologies developed by the university. The extension staff organises field days at selective sites where adaptive trials or demonstrations about new innovations or farm technologies have been conducted. These field trials help a large number of farmers to adopt the new technologies based on the principle of “Seeing is believing”. Scientists are instrumental in guiding the farmers on the spot in respect of complex field problems through field visits. Subject matter specialists gather information on cropping pattern, input use and production related problems, through regular survey on major field crops during Kharif and Rabi seasons. Surveillance of insects, pests and diseases helps to implement integrated pest/disease management models and mitigate the emergence of pest/disease outbreaks through the judicious use of inputs. Various campaigns like crop residue management, water saving, soil testing, foodgrain storage, seed treatment, proper utilisation of inputs etc for improving the agricultural production are organised by the FASC staff. Dr Parvinder Singh, in-charge, explained that the team of the Service Centre advises the farmers to increase their income by way of sowing vegetable crops, horticulture and other ways to alter the traditional wheat-paddy crop cycle. Dr Parvinder Singh said that four farmers -- Inderjit Singh of Sarhali Kalan, Kuldeep Singh of Harde Chack Bambha, Jaskaran Singh of Buraj Deva Singh village and Paramjit Singh of Kot Mohammad Khan -- have been honoured recently by the PAU for sowing wheat crop without burning paddy straw on the directions of FASC experts and were getting more crop yield. Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, vice-chancellor, honoured the farmers at a function held in the PAU complex in Ludhiana.

Local student takes part in National School Games at Ludhiana

Yuvraj Singh, a student of ninth standard at SD Senior Secondary School, Tarn Taran, who got the honour of taking part in the National School Games was felicitated by the school managing committee. Yuvraj Singh was a member of the Punjab team who played in the netball Under-17 state team in the 68th National School Games organised in Ludhiana recently. The final match was held between Punjab and Chhattisgarh in which the Punjab team emerged as the national champion. Vinod Kumar Khanna, president of the school managing committee, while honouring Yuvraj Singh, appreciated the hard work done by him and his coach Prem Singh for providing him with better technique to make his performance remarkable. Jatinderpal Singh, principal of the school, presided over the function. Yuvraj Singh is the only player to get the honour of playing in the National School Games from the district in netball.

Contributed by Gurbaxpuri