Punjab Government Is Helping The Farmers In Pest Control

The cultivation of cotton crops has been decreased in Bathinda compared to the last year because of the white fly attack on the cotton crops. Due to the extensive damage to cottom crops by the white fly, farmers in Punjab are left with no choice but to grow Kharif crops. Even the government has asked the farmers to grow mode paddy, growth of which is expected to go more than one lakh up by more according to a senior official of Punjab Agriculture Department. Punjab had set a target of 28.50 lakh hectares of paddy. “The main reason behind rise in paddy will be the drop in acreage under cotton crops as farmers will divert that area towards rice,”, he added

Though the recent rain has bought some relief for the farmers in Bathinda and Mansa districts as it will be able to reduce the whitefly attack. After discussions between the monitoring committees formed by the Chief Secretary on filed visits, farmers were made aware about barrier crops to save cotton from whitefly. Chief Secretary also formed an interstate panel compromising of 10 members from the neighboring states to evaluate the pest attack and take the required measures.

Government has been making amendments in order to provide some relief to the farmers. Different seeds has been recommended by the PAU and have been asked to launch a concerted drive in the specific areas to control the spread of white fly. With this persuasion campaign has been started among farmers to sow barrier crops, namely, maize, jowar and bajra to prevent from pest attack.

Health Department all set to curb Dengue

Dengue has been a problem for few years, it has been spreading in Punjab and it has affected the people of the state. This year the Health Department has been trying its best to avoid Dengue and take all precautionary measures. They have been carrying regular checking in possible Dengue prone places and carrying door-to-door campaigns to make people aware of the precautions and symptoms of Dengue so that people can guard themselves against the disease. They have also been carrying out drives to spread awareness among the residents to keep the surroundings clean and refrigerators, air conditioners, coolers clean and dry.

This is not it, the health department is also using Gambusia fish that eats up the larva spread around by dengue mosquitoes and multiplying the number of these fishes in all the parts of the state. The effort of the health department can be seen by the results. Bathinda had the most reported number of Dengue in 2015 and the number has gone down thanks to the awareness drive carried by the department. The department almost covererd all the areas of Bathinda which includes more than 60,000 households. The hospitals are also more aware and equipped to handle the patients.

Right To Service Act is a great tool for Citizens

Right to Service Act was passed on 19^th October 2011 by the state government of Punjab. The primary motive of RTS act was to make the delivery of government services to people of Punjab in easier and smooth manner. RTS act will be beneficial for people as it makes sure that the services are delivered in specified time span. Since RTS Act was first implemented i.e. 2011, Punjab government has been making sincere efforts to fulfill the motive of Service act and is focused on the agenda of putting service beyond duty.

According to the RTS Act, commission will arrange meetings after specified intervals of time to take important decisions, the functioning of the commission will be monitored and the final decision making lies in the hands of the chief commissioner. Right to Service Act has been providing transparency in the government department which is a great help for people of Punjab.

A Punjab Right to commission has also been set up for a timely delivery and suggestions to improve the quality/delivery of services. A commission also makes sure that the execution of RTS is done properly. As per the official spokesperson’s claim, around 28, 37,866 applicants have taken the advantage of the notified services during the month of February under the mentioned Act. Also, only 14,160 are the pending applications which are to be cleared as soon as possible. The implementation of Punjab Right to Service Act has been successful and it has also empowered the people of Punjab

Highlighting Punjab government over the Unipoles

Outdoor advertising is a great medium to reach directly to the public. It is expensive, as well as the most effective form of advertising. Hoarding and banners have been into practice since ages and have been used by various brands to the core. It is very expensive; therefore various brands still can’t afford to go for outdoor advertising. These days, the marketing agencies are looking for more interesting ways to advertise the brands and reach closer to the public.

The government of Punjab is now looking forward to hire unipoles to advertise itself across the state. They will be talking about the achievements of Punjab Government in last few years and how the state has been developed in their tenure of governance till now. With this advertising, the benefit will be given to the Municipal Corporation, which has not yet been able to generate the required amount of revenue in the last few years.

With the SAD-BJP government advertising excessively on these unipoles, the municipal corporation will have an added advantage of revenue and can later on use these unipoles to be sold to various brands across the state. The government has asked the corporation to give them the prices for the 50% major sites in different parts of the state. They are planning to start this advertising program till December and will be extending further to other sites as well in near future.

It will even add to the beautification of the state, as these hoardings on the highways across the state will be highlighting the achievements of the state, highlighting its development and highlighting the positive points that the city is known for. Various agencies have also been roped in to give out their best prices and the ones giving the lowest rates will be taking up this assignment for the government. Also, the Municipal Corporation Board has prepared their own list of unipoles and their prices and will be giving the same to the Public Relations Department for further consideration. With this process, the Municipal Coporation would at least earn a sum of Rs 1 crore in a span of six months, which will be a huge achievement for the board.

CCTV cameras, a boon for The Golden Temple

The Golden Temple is one of the most-visited places by people in and around Punjab, be it the local people of the state or from other parts of the country or even foreign tourists. The first thing that the authorities should take care of, is the security of the visitors to this holy place and that their peaceful experience shouldn’t be disturbed by any unruly element of the society.

Wherever there is crowd, some bad elements of the society are surely to be found there and so does happen at the Golden Temple too. Recently various kids were being abducted from the temple. It was getting difficult for the authorities to handle this situation and so they have installed the closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in and around the premises of the Golden temple, so that such people can be caught red handed and such incidents can be avoided in future.

The authorities have been getting great help through this and they have caught various goons indulging in these activities at the Golden Temple. It just took 24 hours for the authorities to catch the kidnappers and rescue a child from them, who was kidnapped from the Golden Temple. The authorities saw the women abducting the child and on releasing the footage in the media, they could easily locate the lady and catch her and rescue the child. In addition to solving the problem of abduction of kids from the temple, these cameras have also helped in catching various thieves who steal personal belongings of the visitors, while they are offering prayers to the lord.

The police can now easily keep a watch at such unscrupulous activities. More than 200 cameras have been installed in different parts of the Golden Temple, and many of these are High Definition cameras, installed at the key areas. Parikrama is the place where the control room has been set up, so that the authorities of the Gurdwara can keep a check on everyone entering the Golden Temple and identify the thieves and abductors.

Government tries to help the farmers in Punjab

Farmers in Punjab are left with no choice than to grow Kharif crops this season due to the scare of white fly attack on cotton crops .The area under cotton cultivation in Bathinda has decreased comparatively from last year as farmers prefer Desi cotton to the BT cotton. As of last years extensive damage done to cotton crops by the white fly the government has asked the farmers to grow more paddy , growth of which is expected to go up by more than one lakh hectares from 29.75 lakh hectares as said by  a senior official of Punjab Agriculture Department. 

Earlier, Punjab had set a target of 28.50 lakh hectares of paddy. "The main reason behind rise in paddy will be the drop in acreage under cotton crop as farmers will divert that area towards rice," he further said.

Though the recent rain showers in Bathinda and Mansa districts have bought great relief to the farmers’ agony. Rain showers will not only lessen the whitefly attack but might end it entirely. The adverse condition of Khushwinder Singh of village Bhainibagha (Mansa) uprooted his cotton crop following the alleged whitefly attack as claimed by BKU Ugrahan leader Ram Singh Bhenibagha.

However, the agriculture department claimed that the matter has not come to their notice, and added that in the entire district, the whitefly attack which should be 6ET level is considerably low marking only 2ET level which is highly alarming for both the farmers and the Government.

After fortnightly discussions between the consultative and monitoring committees formed by the Chief Secretary on field visits, research work, exploring and sharing techniques regarding the control of pest attacks along with making the farmers aware about barrier crops in order to save cotton from whitefly attacks have been the top priority of the Punjab government.

On June 4 Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal formed an interstate panel comprising of 10 members from the neighboring states of Haryana and Rajasthan to evaluate the pest attack and take the required measures.

Strong recommendations and amendments are being made by the Government in order to provide some relief to the farmers. Different kinds of seeds are recommended by the PAU and experts from the universities are asked to launch a concerted drive in the specific areas of Bathinda and Mansa so that the spread of white fly could be averted. Along with this, a persuasion campaign has been started amongst farmers to sow barrier crops, namely, maize, jowar and bajra to prevent the pest attack.In the wake of depleting underground water table, Punjab government had asked growers to start sowing paddy from June 15.

Meanwhile, power utility PSPCL said assured proper power supply to farmers. "We have sufficient power with us to ensure 8-hour supply to farmers starting tomorrow," a Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd official said.

Exhibitions are becoming the shopping hubs

Bathinda is in for a treat, as hundreds of designer labels have rushed to put up an exhibition! The city that is famous for lacks of shops in alleys and showrooms offering thousands of ethnic and Indian wear options, is experiencing the thrill of going to an exhibition and laying their hands on a design which follows the latest trend. With boutiques, designers and wholesalers from not only Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar but also from Delhi and Jaipur, setting up their stalls and exhibiting their latest collections, people would be provided with many options in fashion and style. Fashionable women of the city are at an all time high as latest trend in the ethnic wear collection section is enticing and modern.

Ritu Sarin, a designer from Chandigarh, had held an exhibition in Model Town in the city three months back, had exhibited imitation jewellery to go with the dresses on offer to make it a one-stop shop for her customers.According to Ritu, the exhibitors try to offer latest items to their customers to make sure that the sales stay high, and this is the reason why loyal customers wait for exhibitions rather than buying from stock shops.

Parminder Kaur Sandhu from Patiala, who had recently held an exhibition in the city under the name ‘Patiala Rack’, also vouched for the fact that exhibitions offer what the customers have not seen in the local markets.Bringing the designs, which are making waves in the markets of bigger cities and will take another two-three months to reach the local markets is what these exhibitors offer and prove to be a link between metropolitan fashion and small city style. That’s the USP of such ethnic wear exhibitions and it is the fact that these don’t offer regular stuff and no two pieces are the same.Sourcing different raw materials and unique ready made pieces from various markets of Delhi and other Indian cities, Bathinda-based duo Deepika Arora and Meenakshi Goyal have also been holding exhibitions in the city under their brand ‘Style Diva’, to provide their customers with something abstract to work with.

The best part about these designers is that they don’t believe in ordering and shipping goods from wholesalers. They research about the latest trends designs in fashion and go to other cities to browse through various markets, themselves, and pick pieces they think will provide a fresh change to the customers.Going to the extent of mixing and matching various parts of the ensembles to offer unique pieces to the customers, is what provides them a competitive edge over others.

Such raw, crisp, fresh and authentic designs define originality and individuality, which is the latest fashion trend. Apart from offering a huge variety, they also offer some pieces, which are casual wear and are more affordable as compared to the rest of the pieces. Even the casual wear suits have an edge to them, which the local shops don’t offer.