While the UPA government boasts of the Right to Information Act as among its major achievements, its own bureaucracy is clearly not impressed. Take the case of fertiliser secretary J.S Sarma who has warned the fertiliser industry and fertiliser associations against speaking to the media The secretary has apparently even gone to the extent of saying that he will stop all payment of subsidies to the industry if anyone spoke of fertiliser shortages. He has been claiming that there are adequate supplies of fertilisers in the country but industry sources dismiss his figures.

Govt windfall for mega project promoters In a windfall for project promoters in Punjab the government has announced special incentives for the development of integrated industrial parks. While reducing the area under industrial component for these projects, the government has increased the commercial component. Promoters of these

In what looks like the latest crisis to strike India's food bowl, migrant labourers, who earlier came in hordes to till Punjab's unending agricultural lands, have suddenly disappeared, forcing landlords to stop short of kidnapping them from railway stations and bus stops.

The Punjab government has revived the green tractor scheme under which Rs 01 million will be given as subsidy to the small farmers for the purchase of a tractor. The government has allocated Rs 1 billion to provide subsidy on purchase of 10,000 green tractors in the 2008-09 budget. Only holders of upto twelve and a half acres agriculture land will be eligible to benefit from this scheme. Green tractors will be given through balloting of applicants to make the system transparent and judicious.

If you thought the population explosion was limited to the human race alone, then have a look at the latest figures of the "dog census', which reveal that there are 5.85 lakh dogs in Punjab, of which 2.65 lakh are stray. However, the state government seems to have finally woken up to the menace of stray dogs after numerous cases of dog bite were reported. Two children were even killed by stray dogs last year in Amritsar. The government has now decided to sterilise and vaccinate stray dogs across the state with the help of a Gujarat-based NGO.

faced with increasing scientific evidence of pesticides-induced health disorders, the Punjab government has decided to begin a cancer registry programme. Adding to numerous health studies, two

It used to be one of the most unforgettable sights from the height of the Indian summer: thousands of the world-famous Olive Ridley turtles waddling out of the water to nest and breed on the pristine white sand beaches of Gahirmatha in Orissa on magical, moonlit nights. Not just the Olive Ridleys, most other species of turtle also emerge of their hibernation spanning winters and begin mating and looking for proper nesting places.

Chak Bala, June 08 Farmers whose thousands of acres of fertile land falls across the barbed fence at the International Border expressed their anguish during a training-cum-awareness camp organised by the Agriculture Department here yesterday. During an interaction with the farmers, Deputy Commissioner K S Pannu said he found that farmers could reap only one crop in a year and that too at the mercy of the rain god and stray animals from Pakistan that ravage their fields.