Gunjan Pradhan Sinha & Vikas Bhardwaj NEW DELHI

INFRASTRUCTURE Leasing and Finance Services (IL&FS) Development Corporation is laying down the blueprint for multi-level bus terminals with taxi stands, private food chain outlets and shopping complexes in Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The infrastructure consulting and investment firm may also pick up a stake in these projects.

Chandigarh: A minister said the state Cabinet today cleared purchase of Innova vehicles for MLAs. The PSEB has been facing problem of funds to buy power and imposing cuts ranging from 6 to 8 hours. Sources said the Cabinet also approved buying of eight more vehicles for the Chief Minister's security that has about 37 vehicles.

Govt fails to pay subsidy to PSEB The Punjab government has failed to comply with the directive of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to pay subsidy on account of free power to agricultural pump sets in instalments in advance at the beginning of each quarter.

Moga, July 16 General secretary of the PPCC and former minister Malti Thapar has appealed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to extend his party's support to the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal. In a letter written to Badal today, she said, "No doubt that your association with the BJP is unquestionable, but SAD's or BJP's interests should not be larger than national interests'.

Despite recent verbal duels over politics of vendetta, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh wants Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron Parkash Singh Badal to show statesmanship on the July 22 motion of confidence in the Lok Sabha as he and his party did in passing the rivers waters agreements annulment Act some years ago.

Flowing with ample rainwater a month and a half ago, the seasonal Ghaggar now has little water to offer.

Unscheduled long power cuts offering little time to farmers to irrigate land, an abysmally low water table and erratic flow of water in the Ghaggar are giving sleepless nights to tillers. Farmers with land along the river in the district are more concerned.

A farmer of Khareka village, Baijnath, who cultivates nearly four acres located near the Ghaggar, says these days one notices water in the river, but the flow is less.

Monsoon in Punjab has generally been good and covered most of parts of the state. This year monsoon arrived nearly 15 days early, but it was well distributed in June. This rain has been beneficial for the transplantation of paddy, and also for sugarcane and horticultural crops. For cotton and some vegetable crops, it has not been so good.

According to Agro-Meteorology Department experts of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here, normal rainfall for June was 66.4 mm, but June 2008, recorded the highest rainfall of 277.3 mm in 40 years at Ludhiana.

Even as the district health authorities are yet to identify the mystery disease that spread about nine days ago, the disease continues to threaten lives in this nomad-dominated village. Two more persons lost their lives while several others fell critically ill over the last two days.

One of the two boys who had been referred to Rohtak on Saturday, died yesterday. The deceased had been identified as 17-year-old Jugraj Singh.

Chairman of the PSEB Y.S. Ratra has said the Board has decided to ban transfers of all categories of officers and employees from July 15 to October 31 to ensure minimum disturbance in the offices during the on-going paddy season. Ratra has warned the delinquents of severe departmental action for dereliction of duty.

dead fish floated down two parallel canals, carrying water from the Sutlej river in western Punjab southwards to Rajasthan, for two-three days in mid-June. For a stretch of about 50 km, from Harike in Ferozepur to Faridkot, the water had turned dark and stank of sewage. The water sanitation department of Faridkot town stopped using canal water for two days. The canals also supply water to