Amritsar, May 18
“Speak less, listen more and gather ample information, and then utilise it to make decisive approach.” This was the mantra given by Vimal Gandhi, president of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), during a function organised by the Amritsar Citizens Council here to honour him.

Hailing from Amritsar, Gandhi went into nostalgic mode, remembering his earlier days of education and law practice he did in the city.

It goes to his credit that after joining as president of the ITAT in 2003, within a span of seven years the mammoth pendency of disputes reached to the arbitration level.

“When I joined, there was a pending lot of about 1.93 lakh cases pertaining to various tax-related disputes with different benches. Today, less than 50,000 cases are on hearing. Earlier, it used to take a period of over six months to hear a case. Today, I can say, the hearing of a case can be fixed the very next day,” he said.

Gandhi said it was only the work culture and practice policies which were bit revamped to achieve the result. There were 63 sanctioned benches, having 126 members, which helped in disposing of the taxation-related cases.

“We planned clubbing of the cases having similar nature, we scrutinised appeals and judgements made by different courts of the country on same issues, then special benches were constituted whose decision would be binding on regular benches for disposal of cases. We also organised a sort of in-house competition between the regular benches to observe which one achieved better case disposal mark. This way a culture was developed and the practitioners too were given little more exposure. These were some of the steps which helped us disposing thousands of cases which had been lying pending for years together before,” the president of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal said.

It is pertinent to mention that the law practice style adopted in India was highly acclaimed during a talk show organised by the UN in 2008. As many as 21 countries participated in the meet. “In India, it was the IATA which was selected to give a talk on the prevalent work culture and practice sessions being undertaken here. It was highly appreciated during the meet,” told Gandhi said.

“In the present era of economic globalisation and the expansion of cross-border trade, there is necessity of harmonisation in the tax policies by different countries.”

This was opined by Vimal Gandhi, president, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, an expert in cross-border taxation and also involved with the United Nation’s transfer pricing programmes, here. In town to inaugurate the new tribunal court room and chambers, Gandhi advocated that transfer pricing principles and treaty-making in the area of taxation had to be scrutinised by the Centre as well as the respective state governments. — TNS

Amritsar, May 18
The gynaecological wing in any hospital should, going by norms, be exclusively meant for women only, but we have an exception at ESI Hospital, Amritsar. Strange, the gynae ward of this hospital accommodates men, even during the late hours.

Giving two hoots to rules, these men, probably attendants of patients, were seen having a sound sleep on hospital beds in the ward when The Tribune team visited the hospital at random.

Ironically, the woman patient supposed to be on the bed was found sharing the bed with another patient.

No points for guessing the amount of infection they might have ended up passing on to each other. Some women patients were sitting on the bed to make place for their male attendants.

According to rules, time limits from 11 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 5 pm have been specified for the male members to visit their patients in the gynae ward. For the rest of the hours, their entry has strictly been banned.

Nevertheless, these men, when asked about their presence in the ward during inappropriate hours, retorted, “We have come to attend to our women patients.”

But a look at their pictures clicked a few minutes ago, showing them enjoying a sound sleep on the hospital beds, mellowed them down, following which they surrendered and apologised.

It has been learnt that this is a regular feature in the hospital’s gynae ward, when the males, on the pretext of looking after their women patients even stay in the ward at night.

The nursing staff also rued that due to an acute shortage of staff, they were unable to cope with these male intruders.

“During the night shift, there would be only two nurses on duty for a 24-bed ward. How can we counter these men, when they would indulge in abusive language?” the nursing staff rued.

“There are some who even ring up the office of the Health Minister to lodge false complaints about nurses on duty. The end result is that it would be only us who would have to face the consequences later. That’s why we also refrain from indulging in undue harassment,” said her subordinate.

OfficialSpeak

Sister Nirmal, ward in charge: Yes, they come to the gynaecological ward regularly and sleep on beds meant for women patients after about 8 pm and spend the whole night in the ward. But what can we do? They use abusive language and even do not hesitate to indulge in quarrels when objected to.

Medical Superintendent Varinder Mohi: Even if the male attendants become aggressive, it can in no way be justified to allow them to stay at night in the gynae ward, except for the allowed hours. Actually, this has never been a practice. Since I was away for four days on a medical conference at Delhi, some undue liberty may have been taken which I would inquire into.

Amritsar, May 18
Their lives have turned miserable following the inception of work on elevated road project. Hundreds of residents and shopkeepers have been up in arms against the authorities for allegedly abandoning the project midway.

With roads dug up and pillars erected in the middle of the road, the stretch from Dharam Singh Market Chowk to Shera Wala Gate and further up to Ram Talai Chowk have been lying in kuchcha state. The road is the most prominent for pilgrims arriving from the GT Road to reach the Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh.

Uneven road and upper layer of soil make commuting really difficult. With the rainy season round the corner, the dwellers expect a tough time ahead.

Shopkeepers allege that they have been incurring losses as their businesses have come to a grinding halt. Over 150 shopkeepers dealing in different trades have taken to protest from time to time to make their voice heard.

Proprietor of a transport company, Pushpinder Singh said it had been almost four years that the road was dug up for constructing an elevated road to connect the GT Road with the road outside the Golden Temple. He rued that the authorities abandoned the project midway.

General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), Harpal Singh Bhatia said he along with traders of the area had organised many protests to draw the attention of the authorities. He said out of all other roads leading to the Golden Temple, it was the widest, as a result of which the stretch experienced less number of traffic jams.

Besides, he said, the motive of elevated road was to provide smooth and hassle-free movement to pilgrims coming from across the country and all over the world.

However, the significant portion was left incomplete.

A resident of the area, Raminder Kaur, said increased dust particle in the air has been causing many infections to the residents, especially aged and children. Cough, soaring throat, nasal allergies and other ailments have been gripping people often.

Another shopkeeper Davinder Singh said majority of the shopkeepers were operating their transport apart from small time shopkeepers.

No longer locals prefer to commute on the road since it is lying in Kutcha state. Tourists and pilgrims have to leave their vehicles especially heavy vehicles at Shera Wala Gate to cover the remaining distance by walking down the road. He regretted that the area once bustling with activity was now a forlorn lane. He said the traders were unsure that would the road regain its lost glory. 

OfficialSpeak

DPS Kharbanda, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, said the work resumed after the MC received the first installment of Rs 20 crore out of the total Rs 53 crore from the state government. He hoped that the residents and traders of the area would forget the inconvenience caused to them once the elevated road gets complete.

Amritsar, May 18
For a difference, majority of the posh areas of the city, including the famous Lawrence Road, fall in this ward.

However, rampant encroachments on public pavements and unplanned parking have tarnished the charm of visiting the main shopping complexes falling in this area on foot.

“Pedestrians are the harassed lot here. They are not safe as they have to move on roads with vehicles passing by very fast with almost all pavements encroached upon by shopkeepers, who have illegally extended their shops and by the vendors. Ill planned parking of vehicles has added to their woes while the huge parking complex situated on the corner of the Lawrence Road remains vacant,” said a visitor, Manmohan Singh.

Talking to Amritsar Plus, he said the anti-encroachment drive launched by the municipal corporation is also marred by favouritism. They had deliberately left many encroachments under political pressure.

“A small drizzle results in the accumulation of water pools in the absence of a proper drainage system,” said a shopkeeper Subhash Sharma. During the rainy season, the road remains flooded with water which takes at least two to three days to drain out, he added.

The ward includes Joshi Colony, Garden Colony, New Garden Colony, Dyanand Nagar, Dasundha Singh Road, Jamun Wali road, Shastri Nagar, Brahm Nagar, Rattan Chand Road, Tagore Colony, Rose Avenue, Circular road etc.

Two huge garbage bins, just in front of the Income Tax Colony on Lawrence road, have become a cause for nuisance for the residents and shops nearing it. The foul smell emanating from the dump has become a health hazard with rag pickers segregating polythene from the dump, resulting in scattering of filth on the roadside.

Although this is the ward which contains posh areas of the city yet the choking of sewerage is one of the several problem faced by the residents here. The shortage of water supply has also hit several areas.

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Bakshi Ram Arora, former Chairman, Amritsar Improvement Trust and Councilor of the ward, said the problem of shortage of water supply is being looked into. He said two more tube wells have been passed in the corporation house which would be installed soon. He said till now Rs 3-4 crore have been spent for various development works in the ward while Rs 60 lakh have been sanctioned for laying cemented street lanes and repair work.

Arora said the problem of sewerage blockage is not severe while regular de-silting is being done. 

Amritsar, May 18
The district administration has fixed a target of bringing 10,000 hectares under mechanised transplanting of paddy in the current fiscal year.

The district has 50 paddy transplanters. Since a transplanter costs from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh, the government extends a subsidy of Rs 75,000 per machine to farmers. Deputy Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu said farmers had been given liberty to purchase the machine from their choice of companies.

Pannu convened a meeting of the district heads of agriculture and cooperative societies, representatives of paddy transplanter companies and progressive farmers to promote mechanisation of paddy transplanting.

He directed the Agriculture Department to disseminate information on technology to the farmers to raise appropriate nurseries, holding training camps on progressive farmer’s fields and also asked them to adopt the nurseries.

He said for the last three years farmers had been obtaining 10 per cent more yield from the paddy sown with transplanters. The university’s recommendation of 33 plants per sq m was easily possible with a paddy transplanter. The machine was very useful for small farmers. The owners of the machine should be given full package, including training to raise the nursery, subsidy for procuring the machine and other information. A small farmer with holding of 2 to 3 acres could raise a nursery as a business rather than growing paddy only.

The experts advised the farmers to laser level their field before using a paddy transplanter. For this the farmers should contact the Agro Service Centres of their area.

The cooperative societies, which have already purchased machines to sow nursery, were asked to take this as business too. He advised the representatives of paddy transplanter machine companies to contact the farmers and overhaul their old machines so that they should not face any trouble during the notified period of transplanting.

Successful farmers shared their success stories with other farmers.

Amritsar, May 18
With an aim to aware the people especially those belonging to poor strata of society and farmer community about the various welfare schemes launched by the Central Government, District Youth Congress (rural) chief Shailenderjit Singh has come out with a booklet ‘Aks’, released by MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria along with former MLA Harpartap Ajnala, here.

“The booklet has been published to counter the false propaganda of the Shiromani Akali Dal led state government which has been misguiding the people by claiming that the Centre was not providing any fund to the state,” said Shailendrajit. The reality is exactly opposite, he added.

It is only the Centre that is providing funds for various welfare schemes besides providing subsidies to the farmers while the state government has miserably failed to launch any individual welfare scheme for the farmers or provide any subsidies to them till now.

Harpartap Singh Ajnala pointed that state government has only progressed in increasing the debt which has almost doubled since the SAD-BJP-led government assumed power in Punjab.

Sarkaria said the publication of the book was part of campaign to spread awareness among the public who could take advantage by the various welfare schemes launched by the Congress-led UPA government.

DYC (rural) chief said the booklet informs about various government schemes including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, pension scheme, family welfare scheme, National Rural Health Mission, anganwari centres etc. He said these booklets would be distributed free of cost in the rural belt of the district.

Amritsar, May 18
The All-India Integrated Medical Association, in collaboration with the Virsa Vihar Society, honoured ayurvedic doctors, Dr Suresh Chauhan, Dr Dheeraj Malhotra, Dr Arya, Managing Director Dhanvantri Pharmacy, Dr J.P. Singh, and Shiromani natakkar Kewal Dhaliwal for the services rendered in their respective fields.

They were awarded with vocational awards during the annual cultural meet and vocational programme organised at Kartar Singh Duggal Auditorium, Virsa Vihar, here on Sunday evening. A play highlighting the curse of drug addiction and its repercussions on society was also staged on the occasion. Theatre artistes Sukhwinder Virk and Gurtej Mann, playing the lead roles, left the audience spellbound with their performances. Executive Magistrate Parampreet Singh Goraya and Mayor Shawet Malik were the chief guests. Goraya launched the website of the All-India Integrated Medical Association.

Highlighting the different activities of the association, patron Dr Subhash Biala said the main aim of AIIMA, which was established in 1988, was to bring institutionally qualified BAMS doctors on one platform and protect their rights.

AIIMA was organising different medical camps like mass hepatitis-B vaccination, polio correction camps and free community medical camps, he added. He said at present there were about 1,600 members associated with the organisation from all over Punjab. He said the association also took up issues concerning BAMS doctors with the authorities concerned. — TNS

I can assure that now with the prevailing work culture, the hearing can be instantly scheduled,” he said.