Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Reducing food waste top priority for India: Badal

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WASHINGTON:

India has made it a huge priority to reduce its massive food waste, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has told American industry leaders seeking their investment and technology in this regard. India, one of the largest producers of food, is also the largest producer of milk and second largest producer of fruits and vegetables. “However, India is currently only processing 10% of its food, resulting in enormous food waste,” he said.

The SGPC on Saturday said its President Kirpal Singh Badungar will not appear before a commission appointed by the Congress government in Punjab to look into all cases of sacrilege in the state since 2015.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), called the mini-Parliament of Sikhs, said it was the supreme body managing Sikh religious affairs and thus could not be summoned by a commission.

The decision not to appear before the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission was taken at a meeting of the SGPC in Patiala, nearly 70 km from here.

The commission had asked Badungar to appear before it on October 8 along with documents pertaining to the pardon granted by the Akal Takht to controvers­ial Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The SGPC was also asked to produce other documents.

The commission had also summoned Akal Takht Jathedar (chief) Gurcharan Singh.

SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said on Saturday that the SGPC decision was right.

The Congress government, which came to power in Punjab in March, had rejected the report of the earlier Justice Zora Singh Commission set up by the previous SAD-BJP government in Punjab on sacrilege cases.

In April, the Amarinder Singh government set up the new commission headed by Justice Ranjit Singh (retd), a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana HC, to investigat­e all cases of sacrilege reported in Punjab.

The new commission was also tasked to enquire into the firing in Kotkapura on October 14, 2015, and also Behbal Kalan village in Faridkot, in which two persons were killed.

CHANDIGARH:

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