No purchase in past 3 days; grain market lacks storage space

Sanghi (Rohtak) : Thousands of quintals of wheat has been lying in the open along a canal and in agricultural fields in and around Sanghi village in the district for several days owing to shortage of space at the local grain market/purchase centre, while farmers and arhtiyas of several villages await procurement by government agencies.

“We had brought wheat for purchase by the government agencies, but no procurement has taken place for the past three days. Wheat is lying in the open and it has already rained twice. We covered as much produce as we could, but we have limited resources and there is no support/facility from the government,” lament Ram Kuwar, a farmer, and Naresh Kumar, an arhtiya of Khidwali village, who have been camping alongside the canal to guard the produce.
At the Sanghi grain market/purchase centre, Rajesh, an arhtiya, points out that the centre has a storage capacity of barely 1 lakh bags of wheat (of 50 kg each), while 5-7 lakh bags of wheat are likely to arrive here. Hence, there is no option for the farmers or arhtiyas, but to dump the produce in the open.

“We have been witnessing the same situation for the past several years. Our repeated requests to the authorities concerned in this regard have fallen on deaf ears. The hapless farmers of the area are a dejected lot and do not know which door to knock at,” rues Krishan, a local farmer. Sanghi is the native village of Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Farmers Sheelu and Satbir complain that they had brought their produce on April 8 and have been waiting since then, but no government official has visited the purchase centre to initiate the procurement process.

Most of the farmers have sold their produce to the arhtiyas who are awaiting purchase by the government agencies. The arhtiyas have handed over slips mentioning the quantity of wheat they have purchased from the farmers and have promised to make the payments after they receive the amount from the government agencies.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Yash Garg admitted that wheat produce had to be dumped in the open by arhtiyas/farmers in Sanghi village and this practice has been continuing for several years.

“Efforts are being made to resolve the issue and the officials concerned have been directed to expedite the procurement process and lifting operations so that the farmers and arhtiyas do not face any difficulties,” he said.

Ballia (UP) : The 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be fought on the lines of "Islam versus Bhagwan" and "Pakistan versus India", BJP UP MLA Surendra Singh has said, days after he defended his colleague accused of raping a teenage girl.

The saffron party legislator from Bairia had stirred a row on April 11 when he defended MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar who allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl last year.

“Tell me who will rape a mother of three? He is being falsely implicated," he had told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

Last night during a public meeting here, Singh said, "The 2019 poll are going to be on the lines of Pakistan versus Bharat... Islam versus Bhagwan and so the respected people of the country you have to decide whether it will be Islam, which will win or Bhagwan."           

"(You have to) decide if it is the dishonest that will be victorious or (Narendra) Modi's sincerity," he said.

The lawmaker said that this time if the BJP won the people of the country would rejoice and if the opposition managed to make its government, drums and trumpets would be played in Pakistan.

"People have to decide if they are with Bhagwan or Islam," Singh said.

“It will be Bharat 'bhakti' will take on 'vibhakti' (divisive forces)," he said.

Singh had earlier said that once India becomes a "Hindu rashtra" only those Muslims would stay in the country, who assimilate in the Hindu culture.

"There are a very few Muslims who are patriotic. Once India becomes a Hindu 'rashtra' (Hindu nation), Muslims who assimilate in our culture will stay in India. Those who will not, are free to take asylum in any other country," he had said.

Kolkata : The Calcutta High Court on Thursday stayed till further orders the ongoing panchayat election process in West Bengal.

While staying the election process, Justice Subrata Talukdar also sought from the State Election Commission by Monday a comprehensive status report on the poll process, detailing the number of nominations filed and the percentage of nominations rejected, amongst other information.

The court said it would hear on April 16 the pleas challenging the SEC’s decision to withdraw its April 9 notification, which had extended the date for filing nominations by a day.

Justice Talukdar had on April 10 stayed the withdrawal of SEC’s April 9 notification, directing the Commission to treat its order of cancellation as kept in abeyance.

Justice Talukdar also imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on the BJP for misrepresentation.

He held that the BJP had moved both the high court and the Supreme Court on similar pleas and likened its conduct to “forum hopping”.

The apex court had on Thursday directed the BJP to approach the Calcutta High Court with its grievances over the deadline for filing of nominations for the panchayat polls in West Bengal.

Apart from the BJP, the CPIM and the Congress too has moved the high court challenging the SEC’s decision.

Chandigarh : The Haryana government must recall the 100-question form, which has been sent out to parents all across schools in the state. It seeks out an Orwellian list: Aadhaar numbers, bank details, information on genetic disorders, parents’ educational qualifications as well as details of their religion and caste.

At a time when the Supreme Court has pronounced right to privacy as a fundamental right, this kind of intrusive 360 degree profiling of children and their families is absolutely unacceptable – and also a deeply worrying signal of the state’s priorities and mindset.

For example, why is the government asking “whether parents of students are engaged in unclean occupation”? Perhaps this is a reference to manual scavenging, which like untouchability is prohibited by law but persists in society. But the questionnaire does not suggest that progressive help is at hand. While modernity is about the freedom to inhabit fluid identities, the state’s interrogation seems an attempt to lock everyone into hidebound categories of class, caste and religion.
Raising learning outcomes across schools is an urgent need in India. It is ill-served by a thoughtless educational bureaucracy going off on ill-thought operations like this. The Khattar government must withdraw the questionnaire urgently.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Dholpur-Bharatpur rail route remained closed for almost 2 hours and it was restored by 1am on Thursday.

• At least 100 people were injured in rain-related mishaps in the two districts.

JAIPUR/ALWAR : Unprecedented rainfall created havoc late on Wednesday night when at least five people were killed in Bharatpur and 11, including five children, in Dholpur districts. At least 100 people got injured during the dust storm and rainfall in the two districts.

The death toll in Dholpur was seven till Thursday morning, but with four more succumbing to their injuries, it has increased to 11, confirmed Dholpur SDM.
The district administration has said that the toll figures might increase as they were collecting figures from both the districts where thousands of trees were uprooted and phone lines got damaged.

“Most of these deaths happened due to collapse of houses in the storm. At most of the places victims were sleeping," said a senior officer of Dholpur district administration. The heavy rainfall also affected railway services where trees fell down on the tracks. “The Dholpur-Bharatpur rail route remained closed for almost 2 hours and it was restored by 1am on Thursday,” said a railway officer.

At Sepau in Dholpur, a portion of wall collapsed in the house of Jagdish Baghela. This killed his seven-year-old daughter. At Rajpur village in a separate incident, a five-year-old girl was killed due to wall collapse. “At Basai Nawab village a two-year-old boy and his two-and-a-half-year old sister were killed,” said an officer. Other deceased included Laxman Kushwah(10) of Magwara village and Suman Sharma(25) of Baseri village in Dholpur.

In Bharatpur, many villages were in dark after electric polls and transformers were damaged. The deceased included Vishambhar Jat(65), Kamla(60), Arun Singh(50), Ramshree(70), Yogesh Kumar(32) all belonged to different villages in Bharatpur, police said.

Hospitals in Bharatpur and Dholpur were packed where the patients were seen lying in the corridors as at least 100 people injured in rain-related mishaps in these districts.