The Tribune – Experts to study water-logging: Ashwani

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 5. The Planning Commission has set up a high-level expert group under its member Mihar Shah to study the problem of water-logging in Punjab and suggest remedial measures. Minister of State for Planning, Ashwani Kumar said today that the group had been set up since the 12th Plan envisaged to bring about 20 per cent efficiency in the use of water in the country over the next five years.

The areas selected for the study include Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Muktsar and Bathinda. There are reports that at least four lakh acres of land in the state is critically waterlogged due to the rise in the water table (within 2 metres of land surface in some parts).

The 11-member group includes former Planning Commission member Dr Vaidyanathan, Dr Tushar Shah, Senior Fellow, International Water Management Institute, and Prof Karan Singh of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana.

The minister said he had repeatedly drawn the government’s attention to reviewing water management in Punjab along with related initiatives such as rainwater harvesting and crop diversification.

He said the group would offer suggestions, including avenues for resource mobilisation to implement policy initiatives.

The government would need to find a solution to this critical problem in the border state of Punjab, the country’s food bowl.

The minister said he had also constituted a team to hold a field study in Fatehgarh Churian and Dinanagar in Gurdaspur to identify projects for social and physical infrastructure in border areas.

The team was expected to start work this month, in consultation with the local administration and people’s representatives, the minister added.

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The Tribune – Sukhbir: Open more trade routes with Pakistan

SP Sharma, Tribune News Service

Jalalabad (Fazilka), April 11. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said he would ask Home Minister P Chidambram to take steps to reopen the Ferozepur and Fazilka borders for trade with Pakistan during the latter’s visit to Amritsar on April 13 to inaugurate the Integrated Check Post (ICP).

He would also take up the issue of a liberalised visa regime for Indian and Pakistani traders. Sukhbir was talking to mediapersons after addressing a series of well-attended thanksgiving rallies on his maiden visit to this border constituency after the formation of the SAD-BJP coalition government.

He said the economic profile of the area would improve if the Centre took steps to reopen the Hussainiwala check post in Ferozepur and Sadqi in Fazilka for trade with Pakistan and the Central Asia.

He regretted that though Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had initially prepared a ‘negative list’ of 1,209 items for trade with India, it now seemed the two countries could trade only 137 items through the Wagah border. “We had pinned high hopes on the opening of the land route for trade with Pakistan”, said a disappointed Sukhbir.

Thanking the electorate of Jalalabad for reposing faith in him, Sukhbir said the Chief Minister would call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a special industrial package for the border area to solve the problem of unemployment.

He announced a hospital for Jalalabad besides a world-class stadium to host kabaddi matches. He announced a degree college at Arniwala.

He said that civic infrastructure in 20 villages of Jalalabad would be upgraded every year and he would hold Sangat Darshan twice a month to redress the grievances of the people and for a feedback on development initiatives.

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