Rs Four cr earmarked for dairy development

MOGA, Dec 3: The Punjab Government will spend Rs 4 crore for dairy development in the state by setting up farms of ten to 50 high-yielding cross-bred cows, according to Dairy Development Department Director B.N. Mahajan.Talking to mediapersons here yesterday, Mahajan said Punjab, with the highest per capita availability of milk in the country, the state has 44 plants in the cooperative, private and joint sectors. The department also assists farmers with loans and supply of high-bred cows, he stated.

Smuggling poppy husk: Certain truck drivers of Punjab have started a novel way of smuggling poppy husk from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh into Punjab. The drivers while returning after unloading, used to purchase two to three bags of poppy husk and hide these with the other articles they were transporting. In this way they smuggled a large number of bags of poppy husk into Punjab.

This came to light only three days back when Moga Police arrested Gurmukh Singh, a driver from his native village Buttar and recovered two bags of poppy husk valued at Rs 20,000 from him. SSP Sharad Satia Chohan said on interrogation, the arrested driver revealed how they used to smuggle the poppy husk and disclosed that almost every truck driver was doing this to make quick money.