Five dead, 10 hurt in accidents

BAHAWALPUR: Five people were killed and 10 others injured in separate accidents here.

Three people were killed and 10 others sustained injuries when a van collided with a truck near Hasilpur.

The deceased were identified as Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Aslam and Najma Bibi.

In the second accident, a trailer crushed to death two minor cousins, Mubashar and Saqib, on Ahmadpur East-Bahawalpur National Highway near Abbasia Chowk Dera Nawab Sahib.

Ch Sarwar arrives in Bahawalpur: Punjab Governor Ch Muhammad Sarwar arrived here on Saturday.

The governor was received by Commissioner Asif Iqbal Ch and RPO Muhammad Zubair Khan. Later, the Punjab governor was briefed about ongoing development projects and law and order situation in the Bahawalpur division by the officers.

Ch Sarwar also met with the PTI office-bearers and workers.

Secy visits IUB plant breeding dept: Secretary Agriculture of South Punjab Sqib Ali Ateel Saturday visited the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics of Islamia University of Bahawalpur.

Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal briefed the secretary on research activities on cotton crop.

He said the department was emphasizing on bringing the genetic tolerance against Whitefly, Pink Bollworm, CLCV and salt effected soils.

During presentation, he mentioned that soon IUB would get success in developing a CLCV and Whitefly tolerant variety within one year and demonstration trails would be conducted at farmer field next year.

Ateel took keen observation along with his team in new cotton variety IUB-4 where whitefly was managed without using chemicals.

He observed and discussed about Lab facilities and research project carried out in Molecular Breeding lab of PBG and Microbiology lab of Soil science.

Later, a presentation was given on challenges in the revival of cotton in Punjab.

During presentation it was discussed that Federal department of Plant protection and PCCC had to hunt the chemical for the control of whitefly from multinational companies as whitefly was damaging the cotton crop from last five years.

During discussion, it was proposed that entomological team from the PCCC and Punjab should formulate strategy for whitefly management on the basis of their trails/experiments.

The secretary highly appreciated that research activities of the department of PBG for revival of cotton in Punjab and suggested to collaborate with departments and other agricultural universities for achieving the goals.