Every year, Punjab employs around 10 lakh migrant labourers to carry out the market operations during Rabi harvest. These labourers generally come in late March and stay on till June to complete the transplantation of paddy.
In cities and towns across the state, individuals exposed to the virus and eventually found to be infected refused to go into quarantine, and came in contact with hundreds, reveals the contact tracing exercise.
It has been a little over three months since Citizen Matters raised the long-pending issue of the clean-up of Buddha Nullah. That coverage has given a boost to attempts by a 50-member umbrella organisation to restore the Sutlej tributary, and the government appears to be listening too.
50-60 percent of youth in Shimla are caught in a massive drug menace, as addicts, peddlers or both, says the owner of a rehab centre in the city. Other surveys yield similar findings. What has led to this and why is an effective crackdown missing?