The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Bathinda car dealer under Excise scanner Mehta Motors accused of evading tax on sale of cars worth Rs 118 crore Aman Sood & Gurdeep Singh Mann/TNS Patiala/Bathinda, May 14 Car dealers across Punjab are under the scanner of the Excise and Taxation Department after a dealer in Bathinda was found evading taxes and pocketing the tax amount. The Excise and Taxation Department today detected tax evasion of Rs 15 crore by Mehta Motors on the sale of cars wroth Rs 175 crore. The department accused that Mehta Motors, which is having a sale outlet of Tata Motors and Renault on Bibiwala Road, had hidden some facts regarding the number of car sales during the past three-and-a-half years. “Mehta Motors evaded sales tax. An amount of Rs 12.5 crore has been recovered from the dealer. An inquiry has been marked to an IAS officer who is looking into all the aspects, including alleged involvement of officials the Excise and Taxation Department,” said Anurag Verma, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab. “An anonymous caller has provided a tip off about tax evasion and it took more than one-and-a-half months to work it out. The caller pleaded that the inquiries into the matter be conducted from a separate wing and not from the officials deployed at the department, Bathinda. The details were obtained from manufacturers based in Gurgaon, Gujrat and other states of the country,” he said. “I directed the Investigation Wing of the department to obtain data from the manufacturers of these cars regarding the cars sold by them through this dealer. When the data was received, it was found that between April 1, 2009 and September 30, 2012, the dealer had purchased cars worth Rs 175 crore, but had shown purchases worth Rs 57 crore, thus suppressed an amount of Rs 118 crore,” Verma stated. “Our first priority was to recover the tax amount as once the case caught in the legal wrangles, it become difficult to recover the money. This is perhaps the biggest ever tax collection recovered in the state,” Anurag said. He further said a penalty of 200 per cent of the tax evaded could be imposed on the dealer. Verma did not rule out the possibility of lodging an FIR against the said dealer. Verma pointed out that Mehta Motors had a chain of showrooms at various districts of Punjab, including Bathinda, Ludhiana and Chandigarh. He said from now onwards all records of the auto dealers would be scrutinised properly and cross checked with the manufacturers all over the state and penalties would be imposed on every tax evader. The commissioner, when asked how the local excise department officials in Bathinda failed to notice the sale tax evasion to such a great extent, Verma said it is shocking and is being enquired by Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Bhawna Garg. Mehta Motors general manager Rajeev Goyal said showroom owner Amarjit Mehta is out of country and would return in a day or two. The GM expressed his helplessness to comment over the issue. Bathinda Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner GS Tiwana said the department had inspected sales tax returns filed by the showrooms, but it never cross checked the claims of retail sellers of vehicles from the manufacturers. Officials of the department said the dealer had collected the tax from the customers but instead of depositing it into the state treasury, he kept it with himself. The department has further ordered scrutiny of records of all the car dealers in the state.
	RTE Act: Orders issued to close 190 schools in Faridkot circle Balwant Garg/TNS Faridkot, May 14 As the inspection of over 190 unaided private schools paints a bleak picture of their current status in the Faridkot education circle, the education department has issued orders to close them for not complying with the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The inspection of these schools in Faridkot education circle revealed that it was not only the lack of functional toilets, deficient drinking water facilities and separate toilets for girls, but also the absence of electricity and buildings that forced the decision. There are over 500 other private schools in the circle which do not meet the criteria for the recognition of private schools under the Act. However, allowing the provisional recognition to these schools, the department has fixed a maximum time period of three years for the schools to conform to the RTE regulations, failing which the recognition of these schools would be withdrawn, said Parminder Singh Brar, Faridkot District Education Officer (Elementary). All these schools were given the deadline of March 31 to adhere to the Act, but as there was no hope of the complying with the norms in the coming days, so they were refused temporary recognition, said Mehar Deep Singh, district RTE coordinator, Ferozepur.
	Engineer, family held captive by employees Amarjit Thind/TNS Bathinda, May 14 High drama was witnessed at Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP), Lehra Mohabbat, when labourers hired on contract basis, held a senior engineer and his family captive at his residence for over three hours at noon. The protesters had been demanding the recall of a fellow employee, Charanjit Singh, who was shifted by the labour contractor to the Suratgarh Thermal Plant in neighbouring Rajasthan for allegedly trying to 'sabotage' certain mechanisms in the plant on April 26. SC Singla, DEC, MM II, alleged that the management had assured a deputation that a meeting had been arranged for redressing their grievances with the Power Secretary soon. But certain elements in the labour force were trying to create mischief and browbeat the officials in an effort to cancel the transfer orders of six employees who had been shifted elsewhere on disciplinary grounds. "How can we allow disruptive elements that could cause trouble to machinery worth several crores? In this particular incident, Singh was stopped from putting metal bars on coal conveyor belts by a night guard. When he was challenged, the former abused the guard and dared him to report the matter. It was following this that Singh was transferred," he revealed. Sources said though a police force was present at the plant today, they did nothing to disperse the protesters. Instead, after ensuring that traffic would not be disrupted, they allowed the agitators to enter the colony and picket the residence of Singla. The protesters not only raised abusive slogans against him, they also held him captive in the house and did not allow his wife and kids to come out. They also snapped the power connection to the house which was restored when the other employees reached the spot and formed a human chain to push the agitators on the road outside the house, they added. "If this can happen to a senior engineer inside the supposedly safe campus of the plant, what is here to stop the others from damaging equipment and causing harm to the other employees who take strict action against such unscrupulous elements," the sources questioned. A detailed report about the incident is being sent to the district administration besides the Director, Generation, Powercom.
	Minor raped in Fazilka village Fazilka, May 14 Three youths allegedly raped a minor girl (14) in Ghattianwala Bodla village of Fazilka sub-division today. The girl’s mother alleged that she had gone to the fields to answer nature’s call. Three youths of the same village allegedly abducted and raped her. The girl was admitted to the Civil Hospital at Fazilka. “There are no injury marks on her body. However, the swab has been sent to the government-run laboratory at Kharar for chemical examination,” said Dr Kavita Singh, who conducted her medical examination. “Police officials are conducting an inquiry into the matter,” said Fazilka DSP Ram Parkash. — OC
	Merger of 480 govt aided schools with pvt ones demanded Amarjit Thind/TNS Bathinda, May 14 The Punjab Government Aided School Teachers Union (GATSU) has demanded the merger of 480 government aided schools with private aided ones to overcome the acute shortage of teachers in the state. Although the state is seized of the matter, the exercise to actually start the process is going on at a snail's pace. After a formal announcement, nothing much has been done by the government which is affecting the future of the students in the hinterland, perennially short of teachers. Ajay Thukral, president, GATSU, said the government should order the merger by issuing a notification like the one issued when the private banks in the country were nationalised by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Overnight, the assets were acquired and the services of the staff were deemed as government servants, he pointed out. Expressing his concern over the delay, he said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should pursue the issue with the administrative committees of the aided schools to obtain no objection certificates (NOC) and get an approval from his cabinet that the buildings of all aided schools, on lease for 99 years, were now state property. Similarly, the employees will be deemed as government staff along with the administrative committees which could be redesignated as caretakers and the word 'government' could be affixed before such schools, he added. It is pertinent to mention that the government is in need of 10,000 teachers in its schools. The government is already paying 95 per cent for these teachers and by paying just another 5 per cent grant, the shortage of teachers can be easily resolved. Punjab needs to emulate the example of Haryana and Rajasthan which have already implemented the scheme. There the grant in aid was only 75 per cent against the 95 per cent in Punjab and by paying another 25 per cent, those states have merged the government aided schools with government schools, he added. He also appealed to the CM to personally pursue the matter in the interests of the state, teachers, employees and the students.