CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Government, except for initial provision of four kilograms of wheat Atta to individual families has practically done nothing by way of relief to the flood-affected population of the State, the Janata Party leader and former Haryana Minister Mrs. Chandrawati has alleged.
Talking to newsmen on Thursday at the end of her three-day tour of some 20 villages of Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts along-with Maj Gen (retd) Narinder Singh Mr. A.S. Bains retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mrs. Jasbir Kaur Sethi and others Mrs. Chandrawati demanded that in view of the detestation caused by floods especially to farmers, the Punjab Government should pay at least Rs 5000 per acre as compensation.
In addition, the State Government should supply free seeds for the next crop and the State-owned tractors should plough the fields as a minimum measure of relief, Mrs Chandrawati added.
In sharp contrast to the Punjab Government’s claims of massive relief measures the work of providing every possible help was being done essentially by voluntary organizations she said and added, “However some trucks from Sangrur, Patiala and Chandigarh carrying clothes and other stuff were seen on the way” Mrs. Chadrawati remarked that Punjab’s proud farming community despite the adversity that has over The interfaith movement must become politically active and I hope it will be soon, Diana L.Eck, Harvard University professor of Comparative Religion said there are three approaches on how we react to other religions, the exclusivist one, where we consider our religion to be the only way to salvation, the inclusivity one in which we try to assimilate other faiths in our own, and the realistic one in which we acknowledge the differences in each other’s faiths but at the same time we want to have a dialogue with each other and live together. This is the approach we must all adopt.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 18, 1988
