Justifying the stand of Punjab Chief Minister on not reducing the tax on petro-products, cabinet minister and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia today said the state was not in a position to face the brunt of inefficient policies of the Union government. "States have limited sources to generate revenue and if taxes on petroleum products are reduced, they will adversely impact the development projects of the state," Kalia said.

The groundwater reserves are depleting at an alarming rate in Punjab besides a serious decline in the quality of water at many places due to overuse of the available resources, says a study. Out of a total of 137 blocks covered under the study, only 25 have been found safe with 103 of them being overexploited, five being critical and four in a semi-critical state, says a study conducted by the Water Resources and Environment Directorate, Punjab Irrigation Department.

APHID attack this season is fast becoming a cause of worry for wheat growers. The attack of this sucking pest is visible almost throughout the state.

Though the ban on the import of Chinese shuttlecocks due to the bird flu scare might have resulted in the cancellation of the National Badminton Championship, scheduled to be held in Goa, it has proved a blessing for the indigenous shuttlecock units, which were on the verge of closure due to competition from Chinese shuttlecocks. The shuttlecock units of the city, which had migrated from Sialkot after independence, had provided employment to a lot of families since then and the highly skilled labour involved in shuttlecock manufacturing in the city earned fame.

In 1833, German engineer John Etzler had dreamt of generating power from high-altitude wind. The dream may come true, almost two centuries later. Hermann Plauson, an Estonian engineer, had thought about producing power from

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said the state was all set to produce 400 MW of power from 28 mini plants with an installed capacity of 10 to 15 MW each. The plants would be commissioned by 2010.

Jalandhar: The Associate Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Dr JV Yakhmi, has said that there should be no worry in any quarter as far as the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is concerned. He was speaking at a seminar on nanotechnology. He said new NPP technology was the safest. He claimed that India was one of the leading countries in the NPP technology.

Has Punjab lost its case for the nuclear power plant?

Jalandhar: 83 bus stops already set up in Jalandhar, 23 more on cards. Ludhiana too to have similar stops. Each stop to consume average 3,000 units monthly; electricity used by these stops could power a large village for a month