Wednesday, November 12
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Punjab News

Farmers allegedly form on paper groups/societies, avail 80 per cent subsidy for in-situ crop residue management, but sit on the machinery passing it off as personal

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Email:raghbirsinghbrar@gmail.com District administration must ensure that all the groups/societies of the farmers must display that they are running CHC and these agricultural appliances are available with them for hiring. The state government has been providing subsidies for in –situ(a Latin word, meaning in the original place)  purchasing agricultural appliances/tools for crop residue management(CRM) for years now. The government provides a 50 per cent subsidy to the individuals who purchase such machinery as Paddy-balers,Super seeders,smart seeders, mulchers and many others. Going further, the state government provides upto 80 per cent subsidy to the cooperative societies and groups of the farmers who come forwards to buy such machinery...

Five years on, Mason’s (construction worker)widow yet to get Ex gratia life cover

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot 50 years old Gogi,a resident of Kotkapura has been waiting for the Ex gratia life cover for her husband for about 5 years now. Her husband,  Panna Ram worked as a Masson and died accidentally when he fell from a roof installing a water tank on September 29,2020. An entry into the  DDR(daily diary report ) was made at the local police station and Gogi had submitted her claim with the Punjab Building and other construction workers’ welfare board, department of labour,government of Punjab. But till date, her long wait for Rs 4 lakh claim,according to her, has not ended. In the meantime, she said that one of her two sons also died of illness, which further pushed her into debt. “Gogi is my mother in law. After the death of her husb...

40 years old link drain needs reconstruction, farmers complain of crop loss as it gets broken

Punjab News
Earlier the drain was supposed to be reconstructed with a budget of Rs 7 crore which has not jumped over three fold,upto Rs 22 crore. The drain carries all waste water of Kotkapura town, with a population of over 1 lakh. Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot The 40 years old link drain which carries the sewerage water of Kotkapura town to a link drain, falling into Langhewala drain needs reconstruction. The drain runs about 5 kilometres along the Devi Wala to Kotkapura link road and has all the agriculture area on its left side. The drain not only damages the crops when it gets broken in the rainy season, but its leaking to the road also breaks the link road. Though some length of the drain has been cleaned, but yet is not all cleaned. The way of cleaning the small drain ...
Advancement of paddy sowing by 15 days, farmers exploited the opportunity to grow banned varieties ignoring the water crisis and environment over petty gains

Advancement of paddy sowing by 15 days, farmers exploited the opportunity to grow banned varieties ignoring the water crisis and environment over petty gains

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Email:raghbirsinghbrar@gmail.com While the state government led by chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann attempted to placate the struggling farmers by allowing them paddy transplantation by 10 to 15 days in advance, some of the farmers took it as granted and went ahead with the banned varieties. As soon as the state government announced that the farmers can sow the paddy from June 1 to 9, by dividing the state in four zones, the farmers rushed to the neighboring states to buy the seeds of banned varieties like Pusa 44,Pila Pusa and Dogar Pusa which take about 150-160 days for their maturity leading to guzzle more and more groundwater. The Punjab government had already banned the water guzzling varieties besides...

More than 100 families from Sikha wala village of Muktsar district join BJP-Bhai Rahul Singh Sidhu

Punjab News
More families would join soon-Bhai Sidhu. Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Email:raghbirsinghbrar@gmail.com Allegedly in a big jolt to the Akali Dal and AAP, more than 100 families from village Sikha Wala from Muktsar district have joined BJP. Sikhwala falls under the Lambi assembly constituency, earlier being represented by Parkash Singh Badal and now by Gurmeet Singh Khudian,who is cabinet minister in the Bhagwant Mann led AAP government. The village population is around 4500. This information was shared by senior BJP leader Bhai Rahul Singh Sidhu, who had been member Punjab Public Service Commission and Halqa In charge of Kotkapura assembly constituency from 2017 to 2022. “This is a set back to both the SAD which has been representing this constituency for decades...

Rs 719.40 crore payments have been made to the farmers-Punamdeep Kaur,DC Faridkot

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Deputy commissioner Faridkot Punamdeep Kaur has said that Rs 719.40 crore online payment for the procured wheat has been made so far and there is no problem to any of the stakeholders,farmers,commission agents and labour in the sale of wheat. By Tuesday, 429999 LMT arrival of wheat had been recorded in the grain markets of the district and most of the wheat, about 423826 MLT, had been procured by the procurement agencies," the DC said. "I have instructed all the concerned procurement agencies and contractors to speed up the lifting of the filled up gunny bags from the grain markets of the district and soon, all the procured produce would be lifted.No laxity from any part would be tolerated," the DC said. It is pe...

Alleged mismanagement by the government, undid 15 years efforts to save subsoil water in one step, leading to destruction of the natural resources, ie, subsoil water.

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot The Punjab government has advanced the dates for paddy transplantation from June 10 last year to June1 by dividing the state into three zones for the upcoming paddy sowing season from June 2025. Now the farmers will be free to sow paddy from June 1 to June 9 in Punjab, at least ten days earlier. The government has taken this step to ensure that the procurement of the paddy now goes on smoothly and more window period be provided to sow wheat. The farmers often complained that if they start transplanting paddy from June 10 onwards, it matures in the second week of october. Those days are shorter,moist  and the weather is smoky because of which the produce does not lose its moisture content and remains unsold in the markets. But actua...

Farmers are buying seeds of long duration banned varieties from neighboring states, rice millers allegedly discouraging farmers not to plant PR-126,131 despite the assurance by state government.

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Email:raghbirsinghbrar@gmail.com Farmers in the district allegedly buying the seeds of PUSA-44,Dogar Pusa and Peela Pusa from others states, which have been completely banned by the Punjab government. These varieties are of long duration, takes about 15 to 30 days more than the PR varieties recommended by the PAU Ludhiana, produce more stubble, need many sprays of insecticides and pesticides besides leading to the fast depletion of water table as they need more water. Though these varieties have been banned in Punjab, yet farmers are somehow buying those from neighboring states. “I am confused which variety should I choose. My commission agents from kotkapaura who has also a rice mill indirectly convey us a message that we should not choose PR ...

Farmers are the spine of Punjab’s economy, anndata can’t be left to fend on his own, Dr Baljit Kaur

Punjab News
Raghbir Singh Brar Faridkot Minister Dr Baljit Kaur distributes Rs 6 lakh worth cheques as compensation to fire affected 20 farmer families, 480 kg wheat to each family, fodder for animals --Minister uses her two month's salary, cooperation from NRIs, villagers to help the farmers in need -Punjab govt to award compensation at Rs 18,500 per acre to farmers Extending a helping hand to the farmers of village Sotha and Duhewala, whose ripened wheat crop got charred few days ago, the Minister Dr Baljit Kaur today distributed cheque's worth Rs 6 lakhs to 20 farmer families. She made the onerous contribution using her salary of two months and with the help of villagers as well as the NRIs. Besides this, she also distrubuted 480 kg of wheat to each family along with fodder for a...

The district police have registered 121 cases under NDPS act,arrested 310 accused including 25 big fish in 8 months-Dr Pragya Jain,SSP Faridkot

Punjab News
Illegal residential construction demolished in Faridkot The owner had four cases under various sections of IPC and BNS-SSP Faridkot. Raghbir Singh Brar Email:raghbirsinghbrar@gmail.com Faridkot “Faridkot police have registered about 121 cases of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances(NDPS) and 310 accused have been arrested so far,”said Dr Pragya Jain,SSP Faridkot in a press release to the media today. “We have also nabbed 25 big smugglers(big fish) and property worth Rs 4.33crore has been seized or frozen,” she said. The police and health department of the district have also sealed two illegal drug-de addiction centres,in Faridkot and Golewala village on Saturday. Illegal construction demolished The district administration on Monday demolished allegedly an i...