Finally, a diversification policy is in place with maize and cotton to be targeted as focus crops to help reduce the area under paddy cultivation.

The Customs Department has written to the Ludhiana Mayor and assured him that it will appropriately dispose of 825 tonnes of garbage recovered from 40 containers at Dhandari dry port.

The historic Kali Bein, which had become an example of rejuvenation of a dead rivulet, is again stinking- this time with lakhs of dead fish in it as the flow of fresh water has been reduced and dir

There was panic in the town after chlorine gas leaked from Panjab Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (PACL) early this morning. Residents of Jawahar Nagar Market area rushed out of their homes at about 5.30 am, complaining of suffocation and irritation in the eyes, Lovely Angra, a local panch, said. Pawan, another resident, said: " At about 6 am, I felt breathless and uneasy. I ran out of my house where I saw a large crowd already on the streets. Soon, we learnt that gas had leaked from the nearby plant."

The Punjab Government is considering reducing taxes on both wheat and basmati in certain thrust areas to make diversification a reality in the state besides giving a fillip to the food processing industry.

Sources said the Food Processing Department had made a proposal for doing away with a majority of the taxes on durum wheat and basmati meant for export and processing purposes.

Residents of over 40 villages in Valtoha and Bhikhiwind blocks of the district are forced to fetch water from hand pumps installed outside their villages as groundwater in this area has been render

To increase forest cover in the state, the Punjab Government has decided to plant 4.75 crore saplings in the 2013-14 financial year.

To promote organic farming, the Agriculture Department has decided to open Kisan Huts under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) project in all districts.

Kanakwal (Talwandi Sabo), April 11: Octogenarian Hakkam Singh, a 1962 Indo-China war veteran, is on the forefront of another battle.

The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission today ordered an average 9.06 per cent hike in power tariff.