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Punjab High Court issues notice on plea to
exclude Haryana seats from SGPC polls
Chandigarh, December 6, 2023 As per media
reports, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today
issued a notice of motion to the state of Punjab
and SGPC, among others, on a plea seeking
directions to exclude the constituencies falling
in Haryana for SGPC polls. According to the news
published in The Tribune, the Bench of Acting
Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupta
also fixed February 2 on the petition filed by
Baldev Singh Sirsa. He was seeking directions to
quash the notification of April 20, 1996, and the
subsequent notification of September 17, 2009,
in the light of the enactment of the Haryana
Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014. The
petitioner also referred to the Supreme Court
judgment in the case of Harbhajan Singh versus
state of Haryana, upholding the separate body for
Haryana. He added fresh proceedings were required
to be initiated to notify constituencies for
election of SGPC members in terms of Section 44
of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, in view of the
2014 Act. It was added that Punjab was
reorganised on linguistic basis in 1996. The
centre notified 120 constituencies, of which
eight were in Haryana and were not required to be
made part of SGPC polls, the plea added.
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New Delhi, December 6, 2023 A comprehensive
assessment has identified a total of 310
districts nationwide as most vulnerable to the
challenges posed by climate change. Of these, 109
fell in the very high vulnerability category
while 201 were designated highly vulnerable.

• The categorisation has been meticulously carried
  out under the National Innovations on Climate
  Resilient Agriculture, an initiative aimed at
  fortifying the agricultural sector against the
  impact of climate change.
• Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar
  said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that
  Uttar Pradesh topped the chart with the highest
  48 vulnerable districts. Of these, 22 districts
  were very high and 26 highly vulnerable.
• Following UP is Rajasthan with 27 districts 17
  very high and 10 highly vulnerable. Next is
  Bihar with 10 very high and 13 highly
  vulnerable districts.
• Even traditionally robust food grain-producing
  states like Punjab and Haryana are not exempt
  from the impact (see box). Eight of the total 12
  districts in Himachal Pradesh too fall in this
  category.
• Union Minister Tomar underscored the role played
  by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in
  developing climate-resilient crop varieties
  after 2014. A total of 1,971 such varieties had
  been introduced, comprising 429 that were
  tolerant to biotic stress and 1,542 resistant to
  abiotic stressors, he said.

28 Haryana, Punjab, HP districts among 310 most
vulnerable to climate change Read More
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Very high density of tubewells leads to fall in
water table in Punjab PSPCL report
Patiala, December 6, 2023 Though 13.94 lakh
tubewells are pumping out gallons of water to
irrigate fields, a majority of these borewells
are located in the districts with overexploited
water table.
Ludhiana has maximum tubewells (1.17 lakh)
followed by Gurdaspur (99,581), Amritsar (93,946)
and Sangrur (93,669). Interestingly, these
districts have shown a steepest decline in water
table. Farmers in Barnala and Sangrur have been
extracting water from the maximum depth by using
17 BHP motors followed closely by Patiala, 16 BHP
motors, to irrigate their fields. There is a
very high density of tubewells in Punjab in
addition to solar and over 50,000 diesel pumps.
While the cultivable area is around 80 lakh
acres, theres one tubewell for every six acres,
reads the report. Baldev Singh Sran, CMD, PSPCL,
said, Average power subsidy in Punjab is around
Rs 10,000 per acre annually. However, in some
areas of Sangrur, Barnala and Patiala where water
level is low, subsidy touches Rs 20,000 per acre
on a yearly basis. Out of 150 assessed blocks
in Punjab, the Central Ground Water Assessment
Boards report categorised 114 (76.47 per cent)
as over exploited, three (1.96 per cent as
critical, 13 (8.5 per cent) as semi-critical
and 20 blocks (13.07 per cent) as safe. Every
tubewell pumps out 30.24 lakh litres of water per
week with an average eight hours of power supply.
This means that 14 lakh tubewells pump out 4,385
billion litres of water per week. A report
submitted to the National Green Tribunal by an
expert committee suggest that if paddy
transplantation is delayed by a week, the state
can meet the demand for water of its 3 crore
population for more than 3.5 years. Agriculture
experts suggest that farmers should use canal
water for irrigating their fields and the
government should ensure supply till the
tail-end villages. The Punjab Government has
started working on it. If the target is achieved
early, we will be able to save the falling
groundwater table, they said
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