Jalandhar, April 6
Perhaps being one of the highest revenue-generation departments, the District Transport Office (DTO) has fetched the state exchequer an amount of nearly Rs 95 crore in the current financial year. The figure is almost Rs 25 crore more than the collection of Rs 69.38 crore made last year.

While the department is yet to reconcile the income made in March 2013 with the treasury, the total official collection made from April 2012 to February 2013 stands at Rs 84.68 crore. While the department makes an average income of nearly Rs 8 crore each month, the collection in the last month was certainly much higher owing to expedited recovery on various accounts.

The amount includes a whopping income by way of motor vehicle tax of Rs 75.02 crore. The collection on account of licences, registration of vehicles and other fee stands at Rs 6.73 crore. The compounding fee from challaned vehicles added another Rs 2.94 crore to the annual income.

The income generated from almost all heads has increased vis-a-vis last year. Even if the March 2013 collection of the motor vehicle tax is not taken into account, an amount of Rs 13 crore has increased under this head. The licence fee collection has jumped by Rs 1.5 crore, while the compounding fee went up by Rs 87 lakh.

Owing to the fact that the total number of new vehicles registered with the DTO office has been as high as 70,000 in year 2012, it has had a significant impact on the taxes and fee coming for vehicles meant for stage carriage, buses used for school transport, four-wheelers and two-wheelers, said Dalwinder Jit Singh, District Transport Officer. 

Jalandhar, April 6
A tragedy was averted as fire engulfed the air-conditioning control systems when some electricians were working on the fifth floor of Hotel Sekhon Grand at Namdev Chowk in Jalandhar today.

The wires developed a short-circuit, which resulted in a big fire and dark clouds of smoke. By the time a fire tender reached the place, the situation was brought under control with the help of in-house fire extinguishers. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident.

Jalandhar, April 6
The district police has arrested one of the eight accused in a 16.54-lakh forgery and illegal transaction case allegedly committed by a former Chandigarh-based Maruti Suzuki dealer.

In a complaint filed by New Jawahar Nagar-based resident Rajesh Sehgal, he had said that he was introduced to Berkeley Automobiles Ltd company based at Sector 26 in Chandigarh. The division number 6 police has arrested sub-broker Naveen Minhas, hailing from Baltana village at Zirakpur. The Maruti Suzuki has already issued a public notice regarding the termination of dealership agreement with the company on February 27.

The complainant said he was induced to open an account by giving a rosy picture that the margin of profit in the share trading was very high and his money would grow manifold. He said he got an account opened on February 23, 2010. He said when he later asked the company how much funds had increased, he was told that he had suffered a loss of about Rs 45,000.

At this, he took his payout of Rs 4,54,361 against the credit balance of Rs 4,52,400 and the company adjusted its debit balance of Rs 1960 on its own. He said the company people continued to approach him to invest more and he again succumbed to pressure and gave two cheques for Rs 6 lakh on July 28, 2010, and Rs 12 lakh on August 24, 2010, with specific instructions that no trade under any circumstances be conducted till he ordered them to do.

“I had been waiting for the right opportunity to place order for trading and had no inkling that the company people were fiddling with his account without his consent. I got the shock of my life when I started receiving SMSes in March 2011 that the company had siphoned of my funds to the tune of about Rs 16.5 lakh,” he has mentioned in the FIR dated January 31 this year under sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC.

He has said that he had later realised that they had fraudulently written their own email addresses while filling his Know Your Customer Booklet.

Others booked in the case include residents of Panchkula and directors of Berkley Securities Ltd Rajeev Dahuja and Kapil Sain Goyal, sub-brokers from Chandigarh Aditya Gupta and Davinder Kalra alias Pankaj, Puja Sharma, former regional manager, one witness and a wrong addressee Rajesh Gupta, and introducer Mani Sharma based at Jalandhar cantonment here, all of whom are at large.

Jalandhar, April 6
The rural police today arrested two persons,including one murder convict on parole, with weapons and drug powder and three stolen motorcycles.

The two accused are Jasvir Singh, alias Shera,and Rupinder Singh alias Bhinda, both of Jandu Singha. DSP said the SHO of the Maqsudan police station had laid a naka at Dhogri village.When he interrogated the two youths riding a Splendor motorcycle, he recovered a .315 bore pistol. The duo was rounded up during which 300 gm of heroin was recovered.

Rupinder was convicted for life sentence. He had committed several loots and thefts since he was out on parole. 

Jalandhar, April 6
While the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government has, in principle, decided to lower the property tax, shopkeepers of various markets in the city continued their protests, demanding its withdrawal.

A number of shopkeepers located around Doaba Chowk, falling under the Jalandhar (North) Assembly segment, observed a token strike from 9 am to 12 noon, demanding the withdrawal of the property tax.

The shopkeepers, accompanied by Congress leaders Rajinder Beri, former deputy Mayor Dr TL Bhardwaj, former councillors Avtar Singh, Paramjit Singh Pamma and Nirmal Singh Nimma, also staged a dharna in protest against the imposition of the property tax.

Addressing the protesters, Beri said, “The shopkeepers and traders, in particular, and the public, in general, were unable to bear any further financial burden on them, as they had already been paying for several months hiked electricity bills and increased price of petrol compared to nearby states as huge VAT is imposed by the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government.”

He added that the Badal government had been forced to lower the property tax due to strong agitation and it had vindicated our stand that the Centre did not ask the Punjab Government to impose this tax. We want that the Badal government should withdraw its decision of imposing property tax instead of just lowering it.

The shopkeepers also stated on this occasion that they had already been reeling under the spiralling prices of essential commodities and they were in no position to pay the property tax.

If the decision of withdrawing property tax is not withdrawn, they will not only intensify their agitation but will also not pay even a single paisa as property tax, they added.

Meanwhile, amidst reports of rationalising property tax, Congress leader Jagbir Brar said the SAD-BJP government had been forced to lower the property tax following strong protests in various parts of the state, in general, and in Jalandhar, in particular, by residents.

Congratulating residents for the victory, Brar said lakhs of rupees of hard-earned money of the public had been saved with the decision of lowering the property tax.

Brar further stated that the urbanities had already reeling under discriminatory decisions of the Badal government, including steep hike in power tariff and too much VAT on petrol, which imposes extra burden on residents, as they get expensive petrol compared to other parts of the country.

Jalandhar, April 6
With the hike in user charges, the Punjab Government has once again rubbed salt on the wounds of general public. The SAD-BJP combine has made another attempt to break the spine of the health system.These are the views of many residents regarding the state government decision The decision of the government has come with a shock to the patients, as the private hospitals and the nursing homes across the state will also revise their charges,thus making the healthcare facilities beyond the reach of middle -class families.

Having failed to implement the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, that otherwise could have helped the patients from falling prey to the private and government healthcare institutions, the treatment has further been made unaffordable for the public, alleged Surinder Mittal, a city resident.

A circular of the government says that OPD registration fee has been increased from Rs 2 to Rs 5, admission charges from Rs 10 to Rs 25, general ward bed charges from Rs 5 to Rs 30 per day, minor surgery from Rs 50 to Rs 100, major surgery from Rs 375 to Rs 750, X-ray charges from Rs 40 to Rs 70 and ECG charges from Rs 25 to Rs 40. The charges have been revised for the first time in more than a decade, an official of the health department disclosed.

However, free treatment for people below poverty line (BPL) cards, Punjab Government employees, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Ex-servicemen, freedom fighters, undertrials and convicts would continue as usual, the circular states.

Treatment will also be free for all emergencies arising out of road accidents, man-made and natural disasters. Diagnostic and treatment facilities for expecting women and neonatal children will also be free.

Jalandhar, April 6
Even as the district planning committees are expected to meet every two to three months, no meeting of the local committee has been held since last one-and-a-half-year.

It is learnt that no proper committee has been constituted in this regard ever since the SAD-BJP government retained power for the second consecutive term.

While the government had re-appointed the SAD urban district president Gurcharan Singh Channi on December 27 last year as the chairman of the committee, no initiative had taken place since three months to hold elections.

Last time the committee met was on October 3, 2011. Channi said he was busy with the elections of the Delhi gurdwara committee and then Moga polls. "The elections will be convened after I am back from the Goa Chintan Shivir," he pointed out.

He said no funds had been received for the committees since the past one year.

What DPC is expected to do?

The Constitution of India has clearly spelt out the functioning of the District Planning Committee (DPC). The committee is expected to discuss matters of common interest of the municipal corporation, committees and panchayats and allocate funds for various infrastructural needs.

Discretionary funds

The District Planning Committee had got an year's allocation of untied funds to the tune of Rs 2.22 crore in 2011 to be spent on various development projects, ahead of the assembly elections. In 2012, however, no funds came for the purpose. 

Jalandhar, April 6
A six-member team of the CJS Public School, Jalandhar - Komalpreet Kaur of Class XII (Science), Inderpratap Singh Class XII (commerce), Nitin Saini and Jaspreet of Class X , Sawanpreet Singh of Class IX headed by Simranpreet Singh of Class XII (science) will be visiting NASA, California, USA, for the presentation of their project in the International Space Development Conference from May 23 to June 3, 2013. Students were overjoyed on successfully getting the confirmation from the US Embassy regarding their trip. Chairperson of the School Managing Committee Neena Mittal, general secretary Lalit Mittal, executive member RK Sood and principal Ranbir Kaur congratulated the student team and their parents.

World Health Day

Kamla Nehru Public School Chak Hakim, Phagwara, celebrated World Health Day with a special assembly. School principal PK Dhillon was the chief guest. The assembly began with a group song on the importance of health. Pankila of Class XII expressed her views on healthy body and balanced diet. Students of Class XII presented a talk show on health and yoga. Students of Classes VI and VII gave a wonderful dance performance. Principal PK Dhillon addressed the assembly and informed about the World Health Day.

Library inaugurated

Nirmaan School for Holistic Education organised a programme to celebrate International Children’s Book Day on its campus. Nirmaan Library, with its 500 books, was inaugurated by lighting of a lamp by schoolchildren. Professor Lakhbir Singh said book reading could put children to the main stream of human relation development. He said it could lead the young generation to the national development. The only thing required is right direction. Harvider Kaur, head, Nirmaan School, Monika Pahwa, Sanju Gupta, Ranjit Kaur, Sarita Sharma, Manpreet Kaur, Harneet Kaur, Anita, Bhawna, Danish Rajpoot, along with other school students, participated in the function.

Annual prize distribution

Annual prize distribution-cum-cultural programme was held at the St Soldier Polytechnic College, in which more than 70 board toppers, state winners in youth festivals and other cultural activities were honoured by chairman Anil Chopra and vice-chairperson Sangeeta Chopra. Director Dr SPS Matiana read the annual report of the college and highlighted the achievements. Students also arranged a cultural programme, in which they graced the stage with gidha, bhangra, folk dance and skit based on media responsibilities and choreography stop terrorism.

Mehr Chand toppers

Mehr Chand Polytechnic College students bagged 14 positions out of top 20 positions in the automobile second semester result declared by the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training, Chandigarh. The first six positions were achieved by Mehr Chand students, in which Rajat Wadhwa stood first, Sachin Kumar second, Chandan Kumar third, Vikas Joshi fourth, Amritpal Singh fifth and Navneet Sidhu sixth in the state. As many as 74 state academic positions were achieved by the students of Mehr Chand Polytechnic in 2012.

Apeejay toppers

Students of Bachelor of Design (BD) I Semester of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, have bagged first (Silky Ish Pujani) ninth (Parneet Kaur) and tenth (Geetinder Kaur) positions in the examinations conducted by the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Dr Sucharita, principal of the college, congratulated students. Students credited their teachers and the college staff for their stupendous performance in the exams, saying this was not possible without the help and guidance of their teachers.