Execute loan waiver fully: Sukhbir to Amarinder
Lakhs of farmers accrued even more debt in last 4 years of Cong rule. They stopped paying instalments hoping the govt would fulfill its promise SUKHBIR SINGH BADAL, Shiromani Akali Dal chief
DASUYA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday said chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh must implement his loan waiver promise completely, and must not leave farmers in the lurch by going back on his word.
Talking to media persons at Dasuya village in Hoshiarpur district after paying his condolences to the family of fatherson duo of Jagtar Singh and Kirpal Singh, who committed suicide at Muhadipur village, after their loans were not waived, Sukhbir alleged that the tragic incident had exposed the Capt Amarinder Singh government. He was accompanied by senior SAD leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Bikram Singh Majithia and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema.
“The incident proves that even loans of marginal farmers like Jagtar Singh who owned only one acre of land have not been waived. This despite the fact that Capt Amarinder Singh promised on the holy Gutka Sahib that the Congress government would execute a complete loan waiver once it came to power,” Sukhbir added.
“Lakhs of farmers had accrued even more debt in the last four years of Congress rule. They stopped paying their loan installments hoping the Congress government would fulfill its promise. The loan waiver never came for farmers like
Jagtar. The CM is directly responsible for these suicides as well as 1,500 other farmer deaths due to suicide in the last four years,” the Ferozepur MP claimed.
He also asked the central government to listen to the voice of the farming community which was agitating against the three agri-laws.
BATHINDA : A year after swarms of locusts invaded parts of Punjab and Haryana besides Rajasthan and Delhi, causing widespread damage to crops, the central government authorities have begun monitoring the pest’s breeding hotbeds in the sub-saharan desert region and Asian countries.
Experts say nearly half a billion population of the desert locust had invaded India from Pakistan from October 2019 onwards.
Climatic conditions to determine threat of invasion
KL Gurjar, the deputy director of the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), a subsidiary of the central ministry, is analysing movement of swarms of locusts in coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organisation. He says the climatic conditions in the African and Arabian peninsulas will determine the threat of locust invasion this year.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed though the country is fully prepared for another locust invasion.,” said Gurjar, the national coordinator on mitigating locust attacks.
It was after about three decades that India experienced a locust attack in 2019-20.
Surge in greenery in Rajasthan attracts locusts
Experts say locusts move with the wind and follow a definite cycle from the Sahara desert in
North Africa, into East Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and parts of Chad. They then move to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. When they finish the food there, they move to Pakistan and India.
A former vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh-based Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Hari Chand Sharma, attributes exceptional rains in the last season and upgraded irrigation in Rajasthan for unusual locust invasion.
“With an increase in irrigation infrastructure, several parts of Rajasthan have seen a surge in greenery, attracting locusts for food,” said Sharma, an entomologist.
According to field analysis of Feb 9, swarms persist in East African regions other areas, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, are calm KL GURJAR, deputy director, Locust Warning Organisation
No locust colony left in country since August 27
The LWO authorities say no locust colony was left in the country last year. “The desert locusts normally live and breed in semi-arid regions and numerous egg colonies were reported in parts of Rajasthan. Our teams ensured tht entire egg colonies were wiped out by August 27,” Gurjar added.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday recorded 84 fresh coronavirus infections taking the total cases to 1,25,867 while the death toll stood at 1,954 with no fresh fatalities.
Officials said as many as 16 cases were reported from Jammu division and 68 from Kashmir division.
Moreover, 63 more patients recovered — seven from Jammu division and 56 from Kashmir division.
The officials said 1,23,192 people have recovered in the UT so far taking the recovery rate to 97.87%. There are now 721 active cases while the total number of tests conducted in the UT has crossed 50.18 lakh.
A total of 1,229 people have succumbed to the disease in Kashmir and 725 in Jammu.
The month of February so far has recorded just 18 deaths while January witnessed 53 fatalities due to the virus.
19 test positive, 36 recover in Himachal SHIMLA:
Himachal Pradesh recorded 19 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday taking the state’s tally to 58,385 while the death toll rose to 982 after one patient succumbed to the contagion. Of the new cases, six each were reported in Kangra and Shimla, three each in Sirmaur and Una and one in Chamba. Recoveries in the state have reached 57,156 after 36 more people recovered on Sunday, bringing down the active cases to 234.