Jalandhar, March 22
The Department of Excise and Taxation has fetched a net amount of nearly Rs 260.85 crore by conducting a draw for 912 liquor vends falling in 21 circles of the district. While an amount of Rs 252.08 crore has been received on account of licence fee, nearly Rs 8.77 crore has also come by way of non-refundable application fee received by the office.

The draw was held at Red Cross Bhawan here today. The office had received 1,557 applications for the draw - 829 applications in 13 circles falling in Jalandhar-I and 628 applications for eight circles falling in Jalandhar-II.

The department today received an allotment fee of Rs 5,66,45,000 from the draw winners against the total licence fee, most of whom preferred to pay by bank draft.

The office of District Excise and Taxation Commissioner Gurtej Singh, however, had received 3,958 applications from across the division, including Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala, making an income of Rs 24.4 crore by way of applications fee only.

Falling in Jalandhar-II, the MC area had 11 zones for which there were 729 applications. In addition, there were 41 applicants for Goraya and 59 for Phillaur. Contractor Prem Singla, who had put in scores of applications in his own name, those of his kin and company, was the one to have benefitted the most as he got Model Town, Maqsudan, Basti Bawa Khel, Cantonment and Goraya circles in the draw. Vijeta Beverages, which, too, had invested much on filing multiple applications got Rama Mandi circle in the draw.

Result of draw in Jalandhar-I

Circle name Draw winner Licence fee Allotment fee recovered

Basti Nau Oasis Distilleries 14,43,00,000 30,10,000

Ind Area Naresh Kumar 14,43,00,000 60,00,000

Rama Mandi Vijeta Beverages 14,43,00,000 30,00,000

Jyoti Chowk Grover Overseas 14,43,00,000 90,00,000

Model Town Prem Singla 14,43,00,000 33,60,000

Lamba Pind Ekta Traders 14,43,00,000 30,00,000

Bus Stand Gagan-Vasu Cinelinks 14,43,00,000 29,00,000

Jdh Cantt Sutluj Liquors 14,43,00,000 30,00,000

Basti Bawa Khel Krishan Singla 14,43,00,000 35,00,000

Reru Chowk Global Wines & Spirits 14,43,00,000 60,00,000

Maqsudan Prem Singla 14,43,00,000 29,00,000

Goraya Circle Arvind Singla 13,60,00,000 30,00,000

Phillaur Circle Harpreet Singh 13,45,00,000 30,00,000

Total 1,85,78,00,000 5,00,15,000

Result of draw in Jalandhar-II

Circle No of applicants Winner Licence fee Allotment fee

Kartarpur 111 Sameer Grover 6,55,00,000 6,55,000

Bhogpur 112 Prem Arora 5,30,00,000 5,30,000

Adampur 85 Om Sons Pvt. Ltd 8,45,00,000 8,45,000

Alawalpur 78 Rakesh Kumar 5,85,00,000 5,85,000

Nakodar 41 Jai Shankar 14,18,00,000 14,18,000

Nur Mahal 77 Gagan Wine Traders 13,74,00,000 13,74,000

Lohian 52 Rajwinder Singh 4,47,00,000 4,47,000

Shahkot 72 Kulwant Singh 7,76,00,000 7,76,000

Total 66,30,00,000 66,30,000

Jalandhar, March 22
Various markets in the city remained closed for two-hours in protest against the imposition of property tax today.

Convener of the Mahanagar Sangharsh Committee (MSC) Ravindra Dhir criticised the SAD-BJP government for imposing too much property tax and alleged that the Badal government was doing politics of convenience as it levied property tax, but did not discontinue free power to farmers.

Ravindra Dhir said, “If property tax has been imposed on the direction of the Union Government for getting central grant, why the state government is still continuing providing free power to farmers as the Centre has also directed the state government to stop giving free power to farmers.”

Dhir said, “Even if the Centre has asked the state government to impose property tax, it did not ask to impose too much property tax. If required, the Badal government may impose nominal property tax on the residents on the pattern of Haryana, Delhi or Gujarat.”

The MSC convener said, “Rs 5,700 crore are being provided as subsidy for giving free power to farmers and the entire burden of this subsidy is imposed on urbanities.”

Dhir said a meeting of the MSC would be held on Sunday to chalk out a programme for intensifying agitation against the imposition of property tax from Monday onwards.

Meanwhile, a number of shops in various markets remain closed as different associations observed a two-hour strike in protest against property tax.

President of the Wholesale Chemists Organisation Rakesh Gupta and its general secretary Rishu Verma said their shops located in Dilkhusha market remained closed from 9 am to 11 am.

Similarly the scooter market located on the Jail road also remained closed for two hours. The shopkeepers accompanied by several councillors of the Dynamic Group of the Congress and MSC members also held a protest and burnt an effigy of the Badal government against property tax.

Various market associations around the Mithapur road closed their shops from 10 am to 12 noon in protest against the imposition of property tax.

Jalandhar, March 22
It is no secret that the rising drug addiction across the district has caused schools, especially the ones in rural areas, to be in a precarious situation. On the top of it is the absence of boundary walls.

As many as 64 schools across the district are without boundary walls. These include 39 upper primary schools, 20 primary schools and about five schools being run under RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan).

Barring these, many other schools have incomplete, broken or partial walls. Two schools in the district have brick but broken walls, three have barbed wire fencing in place of a wall while four schools have hedges. About 11 schools await wall completion due to various reasons like disputes or other local reasons, seven schools have partial walls with little height which is inadequate, eight school have walls that are presently under-construction and one school in the district has a pucca wall.

While the walls of most of the urban schools have been made, the rural schools are the worst sufferers as they are the easy targets for thefts and hooliganism as they are situated in open areas.

Some of these schools have been writing to the education department for years for adequate grants for the completion of walls.

While grants for 39,575 mt of wall were approved in the year 2011-12, 23,362 mt of boundary wall had been completed. Until January 31 this year, grants for 15,575 mt of boundary wall in schools was yet to be met.

Staff at the Governemnt High School, Uggi, said they had been writing to the Education Department for years, but it was only a day ago that their requests had been heeded.

The school’s main boundary wall is about five-and-half-feet high, which makes the school very accessible. About eight months ago, there was a theft at the school after which they recruited a private chowkidar. But before the chowkidar comes for duty, the kids in the neighbourhood usually wreak havoc. Plants are uprooted, writings and messages painted on the walls are scratched away and school grounds are plundered. Despite repeated letters, the Education Department did not provide a boundary wall. It was only after political intervention was sought, a visit by MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala, that the school was assured of 
a boundary wall. The school is presently awaiting the grants.

Like Uggi, there is a list of schools like the Government Middle School, Dhirpur, Government High School, Raipur Rasoolpur, Government Middle School, Rasoolpur Kalan, Government High School, Lidran, among upper primary and Government Primary Schools at Bundala (girls), Talwandi Jhander, Goidder Pindi, Saranghwal, Janinam among others, which suffer due to lack of a boundary wall.

DEO (secondary) Neelam Kumari said, “I do not believe that there has been any discrepancy on our part for the provision of money to these schools. Every year we ask all schools to send in a report of their demands and we provide then with whatever they ask for. Sometimes schools themselves commit mistakes or inadvertently omit a certain demand and the onus is finally put on the department. We are providing schools with adequate grants and there are some which have over 10 lakh for the construction of boundary walls alone.”

Kapurthala, March 22
Over 300 students from different schools of the region participated in various activities to celebrate World Water Day at the Pushpa Gujral Science City (PGSC) here today.

World Water Day is organised every year on March 22 to focus attention on the importance of conserving water and advocating for the sustainable management of the water resources.

On this occasion, the PGSC organised painting and debate competitions. A film on coral reef was also shown. Pahal Youth Club Jalandhar president Prof Lakhbir Singh delivered an expert lecture on water conservation.

The results are as follow:

Debate: Anuj Kumar, Army Public School, Gurdaspur, first; Deep Gupta, St Jospeh Convent School, Jalandhar, second; and Harshdeep Singh, Akal Galaxy Convent School, Sultanpur Lodhi, third.

Painting competition: Sakshi, DAV High School, Kapurthala, first; Kushi, RNM Public School, Kapurthala, second; and Harpreet Singh, RNM Public School, Kapurthala, third.

Painting competition (2): Rajan Deep Kaur, BSE Public School, first; Jashan Deep Singh, KV-1, RCF, Kapurthala, second; and Vaban Preet Kaur, Akal Galaxy School, Sultanpur Lodhi, third.

Jalandhar, March 22
The Jalandhar Cantonment police today claimed to have arrested two snatchers within hours of the incident.

The police has also recovered a brand new Activa scooter used in the crime, country-made pistol, cartridges, dagger, intoxicant powder, gold chain, earrings and ring snatched from a couple while they were returning from Phagwara towards their residence at Dhina village on their motorcycle last evening.

The ACP, Jalandhar Cantonment, Manpreet Singh Dhillon, said a complaint had been received by the Police Control Room by the couple - Om Parkash and Karamjit Kaur. The couple had noted the temporary registration number of the scooter PB-08-BL (T) 2509 used by the snatchers, which came handy in trapping the miscreants by laying nakas.

The two youths arrested in the case are Varinderjit Singh, alias Kala, of Ladhewali, and Ajmer Singh, alias Rana, of Pojewal. A case under Section 392 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act and another under Section 22 of the NDPS Act were registered.

The ACP said during interrogation the duo had confessed to 15-16 snatching cases in the periphery, including Nakodar, Phillaur and Nawanshahr, operating between 3 pm to 4 pm.

The twosome had been arrested earlier too by the Nakodar police, but were out on bail.