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Dera herdsmen force entry of cows into school
MC launches campaign against house tax defaulters
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Inquiry ordered into MC’s decision to auction 7 parking lots of pvt hospitals
 Amritsar, March 1
The role of the Municipal Corporation (MC) has come under scanner for its decision of auctioning seven parking lots of private hospitals in the city next month. A parking lot outside a private hospital, which is to be auctioned by the Municipal Corporation in Amritsar. Photo: Sameer Sehgal
Admn evaluates rural properties for tax
Habit-forming drugs seized
Bikram Majithia’s supporters tried to block way to my sugar mill, says Rana Gurjit
120 kg of heroin destroyed
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Dera herdsmen force entry of cows into school
Amritsar, March 1 The Education Department had a tough time evicting a large number of cows from the premises as it called the police and approached members of the village panchayat to clear the school premises to hold the first examination of Class XII. Luckily, no damage was done to the room where question papers of general English examination were kept in the safe. “Any breach could have cost the Education Department dear and even cancellation of the paper across the state”, said a teacher. The school, which falls in Baba Bakala subdivision, is spread in 3 acres. School watchman Gurmej Singh said followers from a nearby dera along with a large herd of cows forced their way into the school campus after breaking open the locks of the main gate last evening. He said they did not heed to his protests and requests against this move. He immediately rang up officiating Principal Germanjit Singh, who in turn informed DEO (Secondary) Rasal Singh Malhi and the Tarsikka police station. Alarmed, the school administration immediately swung into action as 107 students from humanities, vocational and science streams of Class XII of the school were to take their final examination today. After massive joint efforts by the police, members of the village panchayat, the school building and its entrance from the road were cleared of cows. A member of the village panchayat, Balwinder Singh Mand, said it took the entire night to convince the herdsmen from the dera to vacate the main part of the school as it was to hold the final examination of students. Luckily, the first day of the examination was saved as it was scheduled to start at 2 pm. Germanjit, who was looking at the eviction of cows with bated breath, heaved a sigh of relief as soon as the cows left the school premises. Thereafter the school staff pressed people into cleaning the entire premises, which was littered with cow dung. Studies of over 400 students of the school have already been hit as many posts of teachers are lying vacant. The vacant posts include those of Principal, six lecturers and math master. The post of Hindi master has been lying vacant for the past nearly 15 years. Over 3 acres of walled campus of the school attracted caretakers of the herd. They said they it was easy for them to take care of the large number of cows during night in the walled campus. The school staff said the animals trampled over and destroyed saplings in the school. The school staff felt helpless when the police did not register a case of trespassing on the government premises where question papers were even kept. Repeated attempts to contact DEO (S) Malhi failed as he did not pick up the phone. The SSP (R), Preet Pal Singh Virk, said the police intervened and sorted out the matter peacefully. He added that keeping in view the sentiments of the residents no case was registered.
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MC launches campaign against house tax defaulters
Amritsar, March 1 Commissioner, MC, Bhupinder Singh has taken the lead in this direction and conducted a meeting of the house tax sub-committee under his chairmanship today. The other members of the new sub-committee formed on February 4, which included councillors Sukhminder Singh Pintu and Surinder Singh Sultanwind, too, were present in the meeting. Meanwhile, the MC has already served notices on as many as 98 defaulters while giving them a time of three days to deposit their dues, otherwise their properties could be sealed and auctioned. Today the representatives of Alpha One Mall, MK Hotel, Country Inn and an LG showroom appeared before the committee and committed to pay the dues. They have been told to submit their documents, to which they agreed. The MC Commissioner has ordered its staff to re-scrutinise the defaulters' files, gathering dust in the almirahs. It has been learnt that over 2,000 cases of "objections" have been lying pending, wherein the defaulters, who otherwise owe dues, rolling in crores, have challenged the MC's notices issued to them regarding the tax realisation. Officials said around 600 cases among them belonged to big business houses/hotels/malls/private hospitals and commercial ventures, which have been enjoying "immunity" for quite a few months, despite being served legal notices. These files were lying pending for want of house tax sub-committee meeting, which could not be conducted as per schedule. Sources said not even a single meeting could be held by the house tax sub-committee since March, 2012. "It was one of the major reasons that the objections could not be observed and the cases got piled up in the past 11 months," he said. The sources said the MC was in the process of issuing notices to 826 defaulters while directing them to deposit their dues, otherwise their properties would be seized. They owed Rs 3.27 crore as house tax to the MC. This includes many big fish, who never bothered to listen to repeated warnings by the MC, apparently due to their political patronage and influence. According to the sources, the MC is to recover over Rs 10 crore as house tax from residents. MC officials may face the music
The role of some of the MC officials, too, could come under scanner. The reason is that filing "objections" is just another way to evade paying dues and insiders say it can be the MC recovery men only who reveal this lacunae to the defaulters, who just submit any "vague" queries on a piece of paper, which get attached with their case file. These objections have to be cleared by the sub-committee. Till their querries are answered, they enjoy immunity from paying the dues.
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Inquiry ordered into MC’s decision to auction 7 parking lots of pvt hospitals
Amritsar, March 1 For the past many years the MC has been auctioning 20 parking lots and eight "Dor Adde" (where strings are prepared for flying kites), situated in various parts of the city. The list of 20 parking lots auctioned for the fiscal 2012-2013 have mentioned the names of these seven hospitals being run by influential and affluent doctors and their families. Meanwhile, the district unit of the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) claiming it to be a scandal forwarded a complaint to Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal, who forwarded the same to Commissioner, MC, Bhupinder Singh. A youth leader of the PPP, Sandy Randhawa, claimed that these private hospitals in contravention to the Municipal Town Planning (MTP) rules, did not have their own parking lots. He alleged that many of these were running different commercial operations in space meant for parking in their hospitals. He wondered that how come the MC holding public auction of parking lots around these private hospitals. He said instead of penalising these hospitals the MC was providing parking lots to these by creating space on greenbelts and roadsides. Randhawa alleged that in gross violation of norms some of these hospitals were operating in residential areas. When contacted, the MC Commissioner said he did not know when the corporation began to auction theses parking lots and under which rules. He said a probe had been ordered and he would be able to comment only after the completion of the inquiry.
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Admn evaluates rural properties for tax
Amritsar, March 1 While announcing the evaluation of properties, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rajat Aggarwal said the property tax would be implemented zone-wise from April 1. “This move has been taken to check tax evasion for assets located in the rural belt. All concerned have been informed to file their objections, if any, by March 30,” he said. Meanwhile, the DC has also directed the municipal council officials to display the list of property tax rates outside their offices. The rates for property tax for various municipal councils would be calculated between .25 per cent and 1 per cent, depending upon the evaluation of the property's value based on its location and measurement. According to information, the Majitha municipal council has been divided into four zones. For A Zone, Rs 1.45 lakh per marla has been determined as property's value, for B Zone Rs 1.4 lakh and for C Zone Rs 80,000. Similarly, Rayya has been divided into seven zones. Rs 2.9 lakh per marla has been determined as property's value for A Zone, Rs 2.8 lakh for B Zone, Rs 1.95 lakh for C Zone, Rs 1.9 lakh for D Zone, Rs 1.85 lakh for E Zone, Rs 1.8 lakh for F Zone and Rs 1.75 lakh for G Zone. Rajasansi has been divided into four zones. For A Zone Rs 1.15 lakh per marla has been determined as property's value, For B Zone Rs 1.1 lakh; For C Zone Rs 50,000 and for D Zone Rs 45,000. Jandiala Guru has been divided into six zones: For A Zone Rs 1.75 lakh per marla has been determined as property's value, for B Zone Rs 1.7 lakh, for C Zone Rs 90,000, for D Zone Rs 85,000 and for F Zone Rs 75,000. The Ramdas municipal council has been divided into four zones. For A Zone Rs 70,000 per marla has been determined as property's value, for B-Zone Rs 65,000, for C Zone Rs 35,000 and for D Zone Rs 30,000. The Ajnala municipal council would have five zones. For A Zone Rs 2.35 lakh per marla has been determined as property's value, for B Zone Rs 1.3 lakh, for C Zone Rs 65,000 and for C and D Zones Rs 55,000.
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Habit-forming drugs seized
Amritsar, March 1 The police arrested the owner of the chemist shop, identified as Harvinder Singh, resident of Muleke village in this regard. He could not produce any documents pertaining to the sale and purchase of the drugs. A case under Sections 21, 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against him at the Bhindi Saida police station. Sanjiv Kumar Sharma, in charge, Anti-Narcotic Cell, said the police recovered nearly 5,000 capsules and tablets hidden in a cavity of a wooden box in the adjoining room of the chemist shop. Sanjiv Kumar said the police team got suspicious of him when he tried to flee after seeing the police party. Sanjiv Kumar said Harvinder told the police that he had been in the business since 1992. However, his licence expired about five years back and he did not get it renewed. He said he would be produced in the court tomorrow and his police remand would be sought for further investigations. Bableen Kaur, Drug Inspector, who was accompanied by another Drug Inspector Sukhdeep Singh during the raid, said the Health Department seized 53 different types of prohibited and expired drugs from the shop. He said the owner of the shop could not produce any documents regarding the stock and authorisation for running the medical store. "The Health Department had a specific information about his illegal activity. The department had conducted a recce of the spot before conducting the raid," she said. Sanjiv Kumar said the police also had an information that Harvinder used to sell habit-forming drugs in the area.
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Bikram Majithia’s supporters tried to block way to my sugar mill, says Rana Gurjit
Amritsar, March 1 He said if something happened to him or any of this family members, he would get a case registered under Section 120-B of the IPC against Majithia and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, who had been threatening him "indirectly" due the an earlier spat that occurred in the Assembly. "In the backdrop of this move, it was the grudge against me for raising a question mark over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and that Majithia had abused me and my party men during the Assembly session," he alleged. While addressing a press conference here, he said on the one hand the state government had been encouraging the diversification of crop, while on the other hand, it was its whimsical attitude which was further destroying the already depleting sugarcane industry. "It is a classic case of political vendetta that seven to eight persons yesterday blocked the way leading to the sugar mill, of which I am the promoter, during the peak crushing hours of the sugarcane from 3 pm to 10 am. It is quite shocking that despite my bringing it to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner, DSP and SHO concerned, no action has been initiated against the miscreants. This clearly indicates the political patronage behind them," he said, while claiming that they had to break a portion of the boundary wall of the mill to let the sugarcane-laden trolleys enter the premises. Rana also claimed that despite identifying those persons and mentioning their names in his complaint to the police, the police refrained from taking any action. Instead, one officer told him that nothing could be done as these troublemakers belonged to "Bikram brigade". Others present in the press conference were the Managing Director of the mill, Rana Inder Partap Singh and Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia, another Congress leader. When contacted, Bikram Majithia said he had absolutely nothing to do with it as all allegations were baseless. It was a white lie to say that I ever attempted to shield such bad elements, as was being alleged by Rana. "Had we resorted to such political vendetta, we would not have formed the government again with such thumping majority. As far as the spat in the Assembly is concerned, it was all resolved there and then only. If the farmers have any issues, our doors are always open for them," he said.
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120 kg of heroin destroyed
Amritsar, March 1 Commissioner, Customs, KK Sharma, Additional Commissioner SS Katial, Deputy Commissioner Vijay Bahadur Singh and Assistant Commissioner PK Tikoo were present on the occasion. Sharma said the contraband was seized by the department during 2006-2008 in 18 different cases. The drugs were destroyed in a furnace in a factory located in Ibban Kalan village.
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Amritsar, March 1
Amritsar, March 1
