Amritsar, July 26
With school bus operators agitating against the Transport Department's move to impound their vehicles having finished 15-year life span, students of private schools in the city had a tough time today as buses transporting children remained off the road here.

Some schools also remained close to avoid inconvenience to their students. The bus operators parked their vehicles around the boundary wall at Ram Bagh and held a demonstration.

Transport Department officials said they were only implementing the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had directed the government to remove the commercial vehicles having completed 15 years.

The parents had a harrowing time ferrying their children to school.

Hardeep Singh, father of a Class VI student, said he had to change his schedule after the private school transporters gave call for a total strike today.

"My daughter studies in a school located on Loharka road, 8 km from our house. The sudden announcement of strike was a rude shock to us which upset our entire day schedule," Hardeep Singh said.

Roads around the leading private schools of the city were chock-a-block with four and two-wheelers in the afternoon as parents and guradians queued up to pick up their wards. Traffic snarls were witnessed as cars and two-wheelers were parked on roadsides while parents walked into the schools to pick up their children.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the morning but the traffic situation worsened in the afternoon.

Some private schools had already announced a holiday anticipating the strike by the school transporters. Attendance was very thin in many schools as some parents could not manage to ferry their children to school.

Baljinder Singh, president, Amritsar School Van Union, said, “The union members had unanimously decided to go on an indefinite strike. We want the government to fulfil our demands to help us in abandoning the vehicles which have outlived a specified life span.”

He said there were over 600 buses, vans, minivans, Tata Sumos and other vehicles engaged in school transportation.

He said the District Transport Department had levied Rs 3.21 lakh fine on a 1998 model 16-seater school van.

He said the market value of such vehicles was less than Rs 2 lakh.

He said if the government was sincere in implementing the court order, it must extend helping hand to the operators. It was not practical to dump the old vehicles in one go as majority of the small-time drivers procured vehicles to make a living, he added.

He said at least two years must be given to lay off these vehicles. Besides, the government must offer subsidy and soft loans on procuring new vehicles as the cost of vehicles was high.

Amritsar, July 26
While the state government is making efforts for efficient streetlighting system by going for LED lights, there seems to be a lack of coordination and difference of opinion among the government agencies. This came to the fore with the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) floating tenders for conventional streetlights.

While the MC officials believe LEDs are a step in the right direction to save power consumption and bill amount, the AIT officials claimed the LED project at Bathinda proved to be a flop show.

Nonetheless, the Improvement Trust floated e-tender NIT No/E-Tender/SE/LG-IT Amritsar/2013-14, released by Superintending Engineer, Amritsar Improvement Trust, today, asking the bidders for ‘providing and laying streetlight on approach road, Ghee Mandi chowk to Jallianwala Bagh’, the passage which is going to be widened up to 40 feet.

The cost of the work is estimated at Rs 36.75 lakh and the aspirants have been asked to submit their bids by August 19, through the official website of the Improvement Trust. The completion time of the work has been mentioned as one year.

The debatable point is that it being the order of the state government to replace the streetlights with LED lights, based on energy efficient equipments, what was the logic of hiring contractors for the conventional streetlighting, which always proved to be a failure in terms of installation and high maintenance.

In the month of January, Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) had recommended the municipal corporations of five major cities, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda and Patiala, to shift to energy saving lights. These were the major cities where total load of streetlights was around 19,843 KW, costing the MCs around Rs 8.92 crore annually. The installation of energy-efficient lights would reduce the load by up to 6,994 units.

Amritsar MC has already started the exercise in this direction and after getting a nod from the house meeting held on July 16, it has shortlisted the areas to be put under the pilot project for installing LED lights. The areas identified are Lawrence Road, Civil Lines, Sub division wards 8, 9, 11, 21, 22, 49, 50, 51, and 52.

Amritsar, July 26
Traders having allegiance with the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) today staged a protest outside the Excise and Taxation office to air their resentment against the government move to implement e-trip system.

Members of 35 trade and industrial associations, under the banner of PPBM, participated in the protest outside the office of District Excise and Taxation Commissioner. Demonstrators raised anti-government slogans to roll back e-trip.

A memorandum was submitted to Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, district-1, Varinder Pannu to be submitted to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, said PPBM president Amrit Lal Jain.

They stated that the notification mandated that “all the dealers who deal in cotton, yarn, mustard, plywood, iron and steel, excluding scrap and vegetables oil (edible and non-edible) making transaction within the state of Punjab under VAT rule 64-A, shall compulsorily upload information on the website of the department before the goods leave the premises of a dealer”, which was not practical.

Under VAT rule 64-B, inter-state movement of goods, namely iron and steel, readymade garments, rice, all types of pipes, including plastic pipes, nut bolts/fasteners, exceeding Rs 50,000 will also have to follow the above mentioned procedure. 

Amritsar, July 26
Members of the Youth Congress held protests outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner against the policy of the state government to legalise the unauthorised colonies by charging compounding fee from developers and development charges from plot holders.

Vikas Soni, Lok Sabha Youth Congress President, said levying hefty amount as fee to gain approval for illegal colonies was not justified in a democratic country.

The Youth Congress workers raised slogans against the Shiromani Akali Dal- Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) coalition government. The Property Dealer Association also supported the protest and stated that the government was depriving them of their livelihood. Soni stated that the government had completely failed on development front. He called on the people of the state to unite against the new law.

Since DC Rajat Aggarwal was not present in the office, a copy of the memorandum was submitted at his office.

Amritsar, July 26
District Transport Office (DTO) collected lakhs of rupees from the auction of fancy numbers. Satpal Singh of Chawinda Devi village paid Rs 8.54 lakh for PB-02-BV-0003 for his Swift car.

An agriculturist by profession, he paid more amount for the number than the cost of his vehicle. PB-02-BV series from 0001 to 14 fetched a handsome amount for the department. The number 1 was auctioned for Rs 65,000, 2 was sold at Rs 45,000, 4 fetched Rs 16,000, 5 got Rs 80,000, 6 earned at Rs 12,000, 7 was sold at Rs 1.10 lakh, 8 number was sold at Rs 11,000, number 9 was auctioned at Rs 61,000, 10 went at lowly Rs 3,600, 11 for Rs 43,000,12 for Rs 20,000, 13 for Rs 73,000 and 14 went for Rs 45,000. 

Amritsar, July 26
With the arrest of four persons, the Amritsar rural police today claimed to have busted two gangs of robbers.

The police has recovered sharp-edged weapons from their possession. Those arrested are Gurwinder Singh of Pandori Sukha Singh, Bikramjit Singh, Ravinder Singh and Sandeep Singh, all residents of Ajnala.

A duplicate pistol besides sharp-edged weapons was found in their possession.

They were nabbed when they were planning to commit a robbery in the Soorepur area.

Investigating officer Pargat Singh said the accused confessed to a couple of theft incidents. A car was also recovered from them which they had procured by selling stolen gold jewellery. The accused have been sent to two-day police remand.