Scanty rain spurs uprooting of paddy in Muktsar

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, August 5

Facing acute shortage of water due to weak monsoon so far, farmers in Muktsar district have started uprooting paddy crop.

Corroborating the fact, officials of Agriculture Department said they had started preparing a report in that regard. Muktsar district has so far witnessed 207 mm rainfall since June 1 this year.

Though the situation was comparatively better in Muktsar block, there was minimal rain in Malout and Gidderbaha blocks, said a department official.

Due to whitefly attack on cotton crop last year, most farmers switched to paddy this year. However, adverse weather conditions have not only increased their input costs, but these are also bound to affect yield.

“Paddy crop needs plenty of water, but farmers are unable to maintain the required water level due to poor monsoon. This is bound to affect crop yield. Even weeds are increasing. Farmers are using diesel-run tubewells to save their crops and this has increased their input costs,” he said.

Dr Beant Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Muktsar, said, “We have reports that some farmers have uprooted their paddy crop in our district. Some of them have even approached us and sought maize seeds. Now, I have asked all field officers to prepare a report in that regard.”

“Both major crops—paddy and cotton—require water at this stage. The cotton crop is flowering and needs water for bumper yield. Normal varieties of paddy and basmati also need plenty of water. If there are two good rains over the next 10 days, it will prove much beneficial for the farmers or it will show adverse effect on the yield.”

Around 1.4 lakh hectare area has been brought under paddy cultivation and 45,000 hectares under cotton cultivation in Muktsar district this year.

Courtesy: The Tribune

Officers take ADC route to Chandigarh

Officers take ADC route to Chandigarh

Muktsar: The post of Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC, General), Muktsar, is proving to be lucky for officers keen to go to Chandigarh on deputation. Last year, Capt Karnail Singh, the then ADC (G), was sent to the union territory. This year, the name of his successor, Kuljeet Pal Singh Mahi, has been cleared for deputation, and that too after serving less than a year here. It seems Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s home district is showing officers the way to the City Beautiful.

Contributed by Archit Watts
Courtesy: The Tribune

Govt brings nukkad nataks into play

Govt brings nukkad nataks into play

Muktsar: Even as the state government’s publicity vans are screening ‘Char Sahibzade’ in villages, nukkad nataks are being staged in the rural areas to highlight the government schemes for various sections of society. Teams of professionals have been hired to stage a 20-minute play, ‘Eh Mera Punjab Beliyo’. It focuses on the Atta-Dal scheme, Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana, tubewell connections and free electricity to farmers, the opening of meritorious schools and free bicycles under the Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme. ‘Dhadis’ have been hired to sing praises of the state’s history and the Sikh religion.

Contributed by Archit Watts
Courtesy: The Tribune

Cycles for girls, no air for tyres

Cycles for girls, no air for tyres

A bicycle with flat tyres loaded on a rickshaw. Tribune photo
Muktsar: Under the state government’s Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme, Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on Thursday distributed bicycles among about 200 girl students here. However, the authorities concerned forgot to inflate the tyres. When the ceremony concluded, the girls were seen pushing their bicycles out of the school. Some of them even hired rickshaws to go back home. Seeing this, an aged man quipped, “Waah ni Punjab sarkare, tere rang nyaare.”

Contributed by Archit Watts
Courtesy: The Tribune

Know AAP's Muktsar candidate Jagdeep Singh Brar (49)

Know AAP's Muktsar candidate Jagdeep Singh Brar (49)

Muktsar

Contested as an Independent and got elected as a municipal councillor in 2002. Later, he fought the MC poll as an Akali candidate and won again. Quit the SAD and joined People's Party of Party, then left PPP as well and crossed over to AAP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. An agriculturist, he belongs to neighbouring Fattanwala village. He is a relative of senior SAD leader Tejinder Singh Middukhera. His elder sister, Gurpreet Kaur Brar, was an active member of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare's movement.

Courtesy: The Tribune

AAP sold each ticket for Rs 1 cr, claims Sukhbir

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal distributes bicycles among schoolgirls in Raikot on Thursday. Tribune photo

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Malout, August 4

SAD chief-cum-Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal today called AAP chief-cum-Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal a dictator. He also alleged that AAP tickets were given to candidates after getting Rs 1 crore from each of them.

“Now, AAP leaders will fight each other and bring to fore the factionalism within their party. They will also reveal that they had paid huge money to get the party ticket. The advance declaration of candidates by AAP will not make even a slight difference to the SAD-BJP alliance,” Sukhbir said.

He was here to extend financial benefits to building and construction workers under various schemes of the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and the Labour Department.

Asked when the SAD would declare its first list of candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections, he said, “We are not in a hurry to declare candidates. People already know our candidates. But I can assure you that the advance announcement of candidates will spell doom for AAP.”

AAP leaders were already alleging bias in ticket distribution, he said. “Their statements have made it clear that only those people matter in AAP who pander to whims and fancies of Kejriwal,” he said.

Courtesy: The Tribune

Former Cong MLA opposes Warring, favours Manpreet

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Gidderbaha, August 2

Although the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has got the affidavits from the ticket aspirants that they would support the official nominee yet the knives are already out among the party leaders.

Former Gidderbaha MLA Raghubir Pardhan has announced that if the party fielded sitting MLA-cum-IYC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring from there, he would openly support the AAP candidate.

Talking to TNS, Raghubir said, “I will not support Raja Warring. He is not a good politician. If the party allots him the ticket this time as well, I will support the AAP candidate. However, if the party fields Manpreet Singh Badal as the Congress candidate I can support him after discussions with my supporters.”

On being asked the reason of opposing Warring and favouring Manpreet, he said, “Earlier, we had differences with Manpreet when he was in SAD but now he is a Congressman everything is all right.” However, Warring doesn’t even know how to address old Congressmen who spent their whole lives for the party. For instance, he had misbehaved with me in the party meeting regarding Maghi Mela in December last year. Similarly, he abused another senior Congress leader who belongs to a freedom fighter’s family,” he added.

Raghubir reiterated that he was not willing to contest the elections.

On reports that he was sacked for anti-party activities in 2012, Pardhan said, “I have not yet got a single communiqué from the PCC office in this regard. Though some people fuelled this rumour, I am still a Congressman. Even the records of PCC office can be checked,” he said.

DCC chief Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, “I am not sure whether Pardhan has been sacked from the party. He has some dispute with Warring, but the former is a respectable person.”

On the other hand, sources close to Warring claimed that Raghubir was sacked by Capt Amarinder Singh in 2012 and has not been re-inducted in the party till date.

The enmity between the two leaders started when the party had fielded Warring from Gidderbaha in 2012.

Courtesy: The Tribune