B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Gas agency owner, staff held for pilferage
Bathinda, October 6
Taking a serious note of the reports about underweight domestic LPG cylinders being supplied to customers, the Mansa police has arrested the owner of a gas agency and 10 employees for diverting pilfered gas to commercial customers. This is probably a first case of its kind in the region. In the past, only employees had to face action on this account and not the distributor.

Committees to suffer losses as state does away with market fee, RDF
Fazilka, October 6
The market committees in the district will suffer losses as the state government has not made any provision to support their income following the abolition of market fee and rural development fund (RDF) which they had been charging at 2 per cent on each variety of basmati.

Powercom unable to recover debts
Abohar, October 6
Having been under fire for burdening domestic consumers by revising power tariffs four times in the past one-and-a-half-years, the Powercom has made no efforts to recover debts running into millions of rupees from the state government departments and civic bodies.

Gas agency owner, staff held for pilferage
Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 6
Taking a serious note of the reports about underweight domestic LPG cylinders being supplied to customers, the Mansa police has arrested the owner of a gas agency and 10 employees for diverting pilfered gas to commercial customers. This is probably a first case of its kind in the region. In the past, only employees had to face action on this account and not the distributor.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Narinder Bhargav said Manjit Singh, the owner of Indira Gas Agency, Budhlada, and his employees were caught red-handed while pilfering gas in their godown, which had been sealed. He said the employees used to pilfer gas from the cylinders meant for domestic supply and used the stolen gas to meet the demand for commercial LPG, which was sold at a much higher price than the former.

The income of the agency from the fraudulent activity could be gauged from the fact that the distributor catered to over 43,000 customers and was one of the biggest operators in the district. The accused also filled cylinders supplied in far-off places like Ludhiana, he informed.

So far, the police has confiscated 959 cylinders, both empty and of varying weights.

The SSP said they had been receiving complaints that the agency was not only supplying underweight cylinders but had also created an artificial shortage of gas in the area. However, LPG was freely available in the black market, he said. A team comprising Budhlada SHO Abhinav Chauhan, Boha SHO Buta Singh, Tehsildar Naresh Kumar and food supply inspectors Jasvir Singh and Naresh Kumar raided the godown and nabbed the accused while they were filling commercial cylinders with the gas pilfered from five domestic LPG cylinders, he added.

The police also seized 81 cylinders whose seal were found broken. There were huge discrepancies in the supply and current stock registers and the gate pass entries did not tally with the records, the SSP said.

The accused have been booked under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 7 of the Essential commodities Act.

Committees to suffer losses as state does away with market fee, RDF
Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, October 6
The market committees in the district will suffer losses as the state government has not made any provision to support their income following the abolition of market fee and rural development fund (RDF) which they had been charging at 2 per cent on each variety of basmati.

Sources in the committee here said basmati arrival in the district was recorded as 26,49,090 quintal last year. Out of this, the local committee earned Rs 7,91,24361 as market fee and RDF. The area under basmati has also gone up from 84,975 hectare to nearly 90,000 hectare in the district this year. Notably, RDF receipts go to the state government whereas collection of market fee is shared equally by the market committee and Punjab Mandi Board.

With the abolition of the taxes, the committee might find it difficult to save money after paying wages to its staff, the sources added. The committee is likely to lose Rs 8 to 10 crore revenue annually with the new arrangement. It may not be able to arrange funds for development in rural areas, providing sheds at rural purchase centres and construction and maintenance of link roads.

District Marketing Officer Manjit Singh Sandhu agreed that abolishing of market fee and RDF would affect the functioning of the committees and added that the state government can compensate by releasing special funds. 

Powercom unable to recover debts
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, October 6
Having been under fire for burdening domestic consumers by revising power tariffs four times in the past one-and-a-half-years, the Powercom has made no efforts to recover debts running into millions of rupees from the state government departments and civic bodies.

Sources in the divisional office here confirmed that Powercom had to recover Rs 5.48 crore from the Municipal Council, Rs 1.47 crore from Public Health Department, Rs 21.53 lakh from Health Department, Rs 8.14 lakh from the Punjab Police, Rs 5.53 lakh from Revenue Department and Rs 1 lakh from Sub-Divisional Magistrate.

The list of chronic defaulters also figures the names of Block Development and Panchayat Office, Food and Civil Supplies Department, Panchayati Raj Department and Public Works Department.

Powercom officials here have almost lost hopes of recovering the debts from the Municipal Council as the latter has not been able to pay salaries to its staff for the past three months. The council depended largely on recovery from water and sewerage charges but the collections were insufficient even to pay the wages of the staff.

The state government departments have not been released funds to meet the contingency expenses resulting in non-payment of hundreds of bills for the past about three years.