Amritsar, November 11
Though the Municipal Corporation (MC) has chargesheeted only three officials in connection with the mushrooming of illegal hotels around the Golden Temple, over a dozen officials under the scanner, may feel the heat in the matter.

Surprisingly, one of these was heading the scrutiny panel to look into the officials’ dubious role in the matter, but was later removed by the authorities from the post. It was the writ petition filed by an Amritsar-based resident, Sarbjit Singh Verka, in 2010, which spilled the beans. The authorities were summoned by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard.

In May 2012, the then Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal had to "categorically" admit that 21 multi-storeyed hotel/inns/restaurants did not comply with the laid-down norms as per the MC building bylaws and were issued notices. This figure, otherwise, runs into over 100 illegal operations in the walled city area around the Golden Temple.

During September 2012, the then MC Commissioner Dharampal Gupta had conducted an inquiry and submitted to the Local Government a list of over a dozen inspectors, assistant town planners (ATPs) and municipal town planners (MTPs), existing and past, during whose tenure this illegal operation was carried on.

Despite the fact that these hotels or inns never followed the stipulated norms and their physical verification report clearly stated "building does not conform bylaws for hotel purpose”, these officials looked the other way. He had demanded disciplinary action against them at government level, as all these officers belonged to provincial cadre.

The list included the names of Des Raj and Hemant Batra. Des Raj, ATP (later promoted to MTP) was recently put under suspension at the instance of Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi on account of graft charges. The MC has deputed a new Municipal Town Planner Raj Kumar in place of Des Raj.

Though there was nothing objectionable against Hemant Batra, the then MTP, at present posted as senior town planner (STP), he has been removed from heading the scrutinising team, constituted to gauge the MC officials’ role on this issue.

The High Court has summoned the MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda and STP Hemant Batra on November 25, the next date of the hearing.

The MC has already chargesheeted three of its Municipal Town Planning wing officials. They were assistant town planners, Suresh Kumar, Banke Bihari (at present posted at Ludhiana) and Ramesh Chhabra (now at Jalandhar).

MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said no official would be spared whose credentials came under doubt during the inquiry. “Batra has been replaced with Raj Kumar just because his name surfaced in the list of officials during whose term various discrepancies occurred while letting the illegal hotels prosper around the Golden Temple."

Amritsar, November 11
High drama prevailed at the office of the Chief Agriculture Officer, located in Ranjit Avenue here, when the MC’s house tax team raided its premises today to recover the house tax dues pending against the office.

Amidst verbal duel between the two sides, the MC team was adamant on sealing the premises, but the matter was resolved at the intervention of MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda, who postponed the move.

Even as Chief Agriculture Officer DS Dhanju was not present in the office, the MC staff was adamant to seal the office premises for the office being a tax defaulter.

According to Shushant Bhatia, house tax superintendent, and sealing squad in charge, an amount of Rs 6.5 lakh was to be recovered from the agriculture office.

“We reached the office to collect the amount as per the law. The matter got heated up when the staff members showed their reluctance in vacating the premises. Since the Chief Agriculture Officer was not in the office, I brought the matter to the notice of the MC Commissioner, who stalled the move for a week to clear its dues. If the office failed to clear their dues within this timeframe, we would proceed as per the norms,” he said.

Amritsar, November 11
A teenaged girl was allegedly raped by a youth in Tanana village, falling under the Bhindi Saida police station in Amritsar rural police district, here last evening.

The police today arrested the accused, identified as Inder Singh, alias Nikka, of Chhann Ghugha village in this connection and took him on police remand.

The accused was trying to flee the country (was going to Dubai), but was arrested from the Amritsar.

The police said as per the complaint submitted by the victim, the accused entered her house when she was alone and took her to the fields after covering her face. She alleged that the accused later raped her.

Following her complaint, the police registered a case under Section 376 of the IPC.

He said the medical examination of the girl and the youth would be conducted tomorrow, while further investigations were under progress.

Amritsar, November 11
There seems to be no let-up in the instances in which petrol pumps are being looted by unidentified persons.

In the latest incident, two unidentified youths robbed employees of a Hindustan Petroleum filling station situated near Hamza village located in the Majitha constituency at pistol point late last night.

After initial probe, the Majitha police suspected the role of an insider in the looting and was scrutinising the CCTV footage to lay hands on the suspects.

The two youths parked their motorcycles just a few metres from the petrol. They took out a pistol and caught hold of two employees, identified as Ashwani Thakur, a resident of Himachal Pradesh, and local resident Surjit Singh. First, they snatched the money and later took out the money from their office.

“They looted a sum of Rs 1.15 lakh from the victims,” said the police. The owner of the petrol pump, identified as Sahib Singh, who is also the sarpanch of Hamza village, was not present as he had gone out of station for attending a family function.

The accused were in the age group of 25-30 and were wearing a "parna" (turban cloth), he said. The whole incident was recorded on the CCTV camera. The clippings of the footage were being taken out to identify the accused.

The initial investigations have pointed towards the role of an insider. It seemed that the accused knew where the money was kept and that the owner was not present at the petrol pump,” said the police.

He said a case under Sections 382, 506 and 34 of the IPC had been registered and further investigations were on.

Amritsar, November 11
People of Punjabi origin, who had returned from the Kashmir valley after terrorism had peaked there over 22 years ago, have claimed that they have not been paid the monthly cash benefit for the past nearly eight months.

A resident of Sirkibanda, Vimal Seth, said he was last paid the cash benefit in March. He said it was very embarrassing and tiresome to visit the government office in the district court in the first weak of every month and then return empty handed.

He recalled that he, along with his elder brother, had painstakingly established a provision store in the valley. “Years of efforts had started delivering good results when militancy gained momentum and its horrible impact was visible,” he remarked. He said he, along with his wife and two small daughters, returned to his native town with a bleak future.

The Kashmir Palayankarta Samiti, Punjab, general secretary Rajinder Bhatia, said the number of these internally displaced people was declining, with deaths of some and marriage of girls to other places. He said when they had returned from the Kashmir valley, leaving behind houses and shops, there were 250 of them over two decades ago. Now, there are only 180 members.

He said as per the rules, they were being paid Rs 500 allowance per member, which cannot exceed more than four members in a family. He lamented that the government was finding it difficult to pay even this meagre allowance.

He claimed that it was gross injustice that the displaced persons from Kashmir Valley, settled in Jammu, Chandigarh and Delhi, were being paid a monthly allowance of Rs 6,000 per family. He demanded that they should be issued the allowance at par with the victims of anti-Sikh riots. 

Amritsar, November 11
After a lapse of six years with countless deadlines and a trial run, the holy city would at least be gifted with its first public transport in the shape of low-floor city bus service by December 15.

With the Municipal Corporation (MC) revamping the city bus service terminal in the Maal Mandi area, the project now seems to be inching towards reality. The project has been hanging fire, as it was stuck in red tape. The city bus service was launched in cities like Ludhiana and Jalandhar long time ago.

A fresh yellow coat of paint with green stripes was being done at the whole bus terminal, which was earlier in a dilapidated state and was home to anti-social elements, including drug addicts. MC Commissioner DPS Kharbanda said this bus terminal, spread in around 2 acres, would don a fresh look and would be equipped with main office, boundary lines, waiting halls, ticketing counters and even rest room for drivers and staff, who would operate the bus service.

“By December 15, the buses would hit the Amritsar roads as every requisite procedure had been done. It could be a sort of New Year gift to the residents of the holy city. There is no question of any delay in the launch of the city bus service. Three manufacturers, Ashok Leyland, Tata and Isuzu, have already consented to provide us with the required fleet of buses,” he said.

When it happens, the city bus service will be a boon for residents and tourists, who were left at the mercy of polluted autorickshaws.

The proposal is to introduce this service on own, operate and maintain basis. The MC has incorporated a company named as Amritsar City Transport Service Ltd (ACTSL), which has been referred to as "authority” to run this service.

There will be a total of 150 buses to be introduced in a phased manner, 30 low-floor AC, 25 semi-low floor non-AC, 70 midi-buses standard non-AC, 29 midi-buses AC.

The introduction of the bus service was conceptualised in 2007 by the Akali-BJP alliance. It was viewed that in the absence of any other mode of public transport, the visitors often fell victim to auto-rickshaw drivers who charged them exorbitantly.

Records speak that the MC had received Rs 11.66 crore (Rs 8.33 crore from the Centre under JNNURM programme and Rs 3.33 crore from the state) for this project. The MC has also spent over Rs 7.28 lakh on consultancy and Rs 12.57 lakh on advertisements, and the result till date stood at just a "naught".

The ambitious project of the city bus service died its own death due to a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict over restricting to the LPG or CNG-driven vehicles while discouraging the diesel-driven ones in 2010. The stay was later vacated because of the non-feasibility of the CNG and LPG filling stations.

Thereafter, on getting nod from the Urban Development Ministry, a lot of 150 buses was sanctioned and even the tenders for the first lot of 30 buses were floated on the Ludhiana pattern. The project was chalked out, the routes and the ticket fare were finalised. Even the trial run for the city buses was conducted with much fanfare by the then Mayor Shwait Malik, but later it all had to be scrapped due to unknown reasons.

Amritsar, November 11
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has settled over 10 lakh claims in October.

The number of the claims settled was 28 per cent higher as compared to the month of September.

In a press release issued here today, Central Provident Fund Commissioner KK Jalan said 72 per cent of these claims were settled within 10 days of filing while the remaining were disposed of within one maonth. The EPFO’s efforts in grievance redressal has paid dividends as the number of complaints in the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) has come down to below 100.

The number of grievances in the Employees Provident Fund Internet Grievance System (EPFiGMS), which has been activated lately, got also reduced from over 25,000 to less than 5,500.

Of the 123 offices of the EPFO, 108 did not have a single complaint pending for over 30 days.

The EPFO has launched the Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP) to take care of 13 lakh transfer claims, usually received during the year. It also launched two other softwares, one which allows change of name of an employee and another that allows calculation of interest as well as of penal damages to be recovered from defaulting employers, recently.

He said these softwares would help in reducing the grievances and in recovery of thousands of crores pending for years.

Amritsar, November 11
The first all-women music band from the US,‘Flor De Toloache’, performed Mariachi in a fusion with Punjabi music and Gidda at Khalsa College and Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA) today. The performances reached the climax when students from the Khalsa College for Women blended Gidda and danced on love legends.

“It is a rare opportunity to perform along with student artistes from Punjab,” said a member of the band Louisa Bastidas.

“We had no clue about the folk music and art forms here when we arrived, but watching the energy and experiencing the colourful and edgy music here was exciting,” she added.

“Mariachi music is about people, land and lifestyle. We sing about love, romance, sorrow, happiness and the celebration of life. The Punjabi folk music too is about love and people. i thought it was a perfect way to bring two different music genres together on one stage," said Mireya Ramos, vocalist and founder of the group.

If gidda girls looked pretty in their colourful traditional attires, the Mariachis too decked up in their colourful traditional trouser-shirt-hat combination.

Regional passport officer JS Sodhi and Khalsa College Governing Council secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina were the chief guests. After the performance, members of the US band group were honoured by Principal Daljit Singh.

They said such programmes help inciting inter-cultural understanding.

Later, the US artistes presented a Mariachi-Punjabi Gidda fusion at the art gallery as well.

The programme was the part of an inter-cultural exchange initiative of the US Embassy in India for better understanding of different cultures.

“It was a special occasion for artistes from both countries to understand each others folk cultures and art forms. More such programmes must be planned in the future,” Chhina added.

Amritsar, November 11
A delegation from Australia comprising educationists, senior journalists and staff of senior politicians today visited Guru Nanak Dev University. They interacted with Vice-Chancellor Ajaib Singh Brar and faculty of the university regarding mutual research collaboration and other academic programmes between India and Australia.

Prof Alex Singh, director, KAPS Educational Institute, Melbourne, said the aim was to understand the Indian education system, besides giving exposure to emerging politicians and future members of parliament an essence of the Punjabi culture.

Professor Brar apprised the visiting dignitaries about the academic, sports, cultural and other activities of the university while Professor Alex and his colleagues observed the achievements, research activities, management control of a large number of affiliated colleges and setting up of regional campuses in remote areas, transparency in admissions and examination system of the university.

Professor Alex also assured high-quality research collaborations in different thrust areas of science and technology, including material sciences, environmental and life sciences with the GNDU.

The delegation also visited various departments of the university.

Meanwhile, various issues related to fellowships, student visa, immigration, student-exchange programmes and faculty training progammes were also discussed. 

Amritsar, November 11
Government Girls Senior Secondary School (GGSSS), Mall Road, has bagged seven prizes in a district-level science fair. After bagging nine prizes at a tehsil-level science fair, the students of the school repeated their victory by winning seven prizes at the district-level event.

Mandeep Kaur, Principal of the school, said the fair was organised as per the instructions of the State Science Society, Chandigarh, with an objective to stimulate the interest of students in science. As many as 125 students from 72 schools of the district took part in the fair.

Students of the GGSSS Vanshika and Amandeep Kaur won the first and the second positions in model exhibition, Sonali won the first prize in poster-making, Savita and Priya got the first position in quiz, Payal won the third position in declamation and Parmeet Sandhu got a consolation prize in slogan writing. In science teachers' competition, Dimple Joshi of the school won the second position in teaching aid.

Students, who got the first positions, will now participate in the state-level science fair that will be held at Ropar.

Later, district science supervisor Sudeep Kaur honoured the winners.

Amritsar, November 11
In a rare musical treat, the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPICMACAY) brought Kushal Das, a renowned sitar maestro, and Durjay Bhaumik, a percussionist, to Spring Dale Senior School, today.

The duo regaled the staff and students of the school with its soulful renditions of various classical ‘ragas’ and ‘laya-taal’, besides apprising them of various nuances of the classical music.

Born to a musical family of Kolkata, Kushal Das is the grandson of renowned Esraj player late Bimal Das and the son of Sailen Das, who along with his brother Santanu Das, is a reputed Sitarist.

Kushal, who started his training at the age of seven, received intensive and rigorous training in advanced sitar techniques under the guidance of Prof Sanjoy Bandhopadhyay, who is also a renowned academician.

An ‘A grade’ musician of the All-India Radio (AIR), he has been awarded the Sangeet Visharad from the Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, and Sur-Mani from Sur Singar Samsad of Mumbai. He has participated in all major music festivals of India, besides touring Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Bangladesh.

Percussionist Durjay Bhaumik, who too hails from a musical family of Kolkata, began his training at the age of four under Pandit Dulal Natta of Bengal and later from Pandit V Malviya of Delhi. At present, he is under the tutelage of Pandit Suresh Talwalkar.

He has accompanied musical celebrities like Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Ajoy Chokraborty and Ustaad Imrat Hussain Khan and many others on tabla.

Amritsar, November 11
Residents, especially commuters, today remained at the receiving end when a number of workers of the Valmiki community today held a protest dharna at the busy Bhandari Bridge in support of their demands.

The protest continued for around two hours during which the agitators, who were armed with wooden sticks did not allow any vehicle to move on. The traffic police had a tough time in diverting the traffic and this led to jams at Crystal Chowk, Lawrence Road chowk, Elevated road and the Bhandari Bridge, which connects the old walled city with other parts of the city.

People were critical about the district administration for its failure to make any arrangements for thwarting the demonstration.

The district administration has banned holding of agitations and demonstrations at the Bhandari Bridge and the Hall Gate area and designated an open space in the Ranjit Avenue area for the same. However, the ban orders go up in smoke as various organisations continue to organise protests at various parts of the city, including the crucial Bhandari Bridge and the Hall gate area that led to severe traffic jams.

Various associations of the Valmiki Samaj had already informed the district administration about their plans, though the police administration failed to make adequate arrangements and either shifted the venue or thwarting the attempt of agitators to block the traffic at the Bhandari bridge.

The commuters remained stranded at the bridge for about two hours. Police officials had tough times in convincing the agitators to end their demonstration soon.

Associations of the Valmiki Sabha were holding a demonstration in protest against the laying of the foundation stone on the panchayat land of Kaler village that is under the occupation of Guru Gian Nath Ashram for the past many years.

Nachhatar Nath of the Guru Giannath Valimiki Dharam Samaj alleged that the government wanted to usurp the land. He alleged that members of the community were being subjected to atrocities while the government had failed to curb such instances.

While submitting a memorandum to the ADCP City-II, the associations threatened to intensify their agitation if the government failed to meet their demands. The agitation was ended after an assurance was given by the district administration officials to arrange their meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on November 15.

Amritsar, November 11
The Government-Aided School Teachers’ Union has warned that in case the Treasury Department did not release the second instalment of the arrears of their new pay scales, they would hold a protest outside its offices across the state on November 18.

Gurcharan Singh, state president of the the union, said today that the payment of adjustment bills had also not been released since July.

He said if these grievances of teachers were not addressed then they would hold a protest in front of the treasury office.

Hitting out at the SAD-BJP coalition government for its “myopic policies” he said students of government-aided schools had been deprived from the benefits of the Mai Bhagi Scheme and the Dr Hargobind Khurrana Scholarship. The former scheme was meant to provide bicycles to girl students from economically weaker families and the latter offers scholarship to students scoring above 80 per cent marks.

Earlier, he said teachers of government-aided schools were released salary after nearly six months since the state government withheld the stipulated grant.

The government provides 95 per cent grant-in-aid while the rest of the five per cent is shared by managing committees of the respective schools. Teachers of these schools complained for being overburdened as 60 per cent posts are lying vacant.

Hardeep Singh Dhindsa, spokesperson for the union, said the service rules for employees of aided schools were the same as compared to their counterparts in government schools.

“However, when it comes to salary, teachers of government-aided schools are not being paid their dues at par with their counterparts," he said.

He recalled that it was in 1967 that the then Chief Minister Lachchman Singh Gill brought all private schools under the grant-in-aid system following Delhi’s pattern.

Dhindsa said 9,468 posts were sanctioned to 508 schools in the state and claimed that so far 24 schools have either been closed and many others are on the verge of closure.

In 2003, the Congress government, led by Amarinder Singh, stopped the pension and also banned the filling of the vacant posts of these schools. These steps have deteriorated the imparting of education in the schools.

The union reasoned that the panacea for several ills plaguing the government-aided schools rest in their merger with the government’s Education Department.

As per the Right to Information (RTI) Act and orders of the apex court, the state governments were supposed to fill the vacant posts till September 2013, he said.

About 60 per cent vacancies in the aided schools translate into over 5,000 posts and to fill these, it would cost over 300 crore, which is a huge economic burden looming large over the government.

By merging the employees of the aided schools, the government will get 4,300 experienced employees also.

In case the government fills the posts, then they would have to give them at least the basic salary nearing Rs 10,300.

He added that the government had not issued the salary budget after September.

The communication regarding the revised pay scale of lab attendants and Class IV employees of the aided schools had also not been issued, he rued.

Amritsar, November 11
Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) All India Inter-Zonal Cricket Tournament, organised by the Shri Guru Ram Dass International Airport, was won by the east zone at the Gandhi Ground here today.

The east zone defeated the central zone and won the match by seven wickets.

The central zone won the toss and batted first and posted a target of 101 runs.

The east zone won the match by its marvellous batting and scored 103 runs in 17.3 overs. Its player MK Tahid was selected as the man of the match as well as the man of the tournament. Tahid scored an unbeaten 56 runs and scalped two wickets.

MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and AAI’s Regional Sports Control Board President Dinesh Kumar presented the trophy to the winning team. Sunil Dutt, Director of the Amritsar airport, was among those others present.

Dutt congratulated the winning team and said the AAI’s strategy of holding sports competitions would continue to provide exposure to its players.

Jalandhar, November 11
Alleging that the sarpanch of Hirapur village was being wrongly presented as an accused in the burning of a holy book on Saturday, his supporters held a protest blocking passage at Company Bagh Chowk here this afternoon.

The protesters sat in the middle of the road blocking traffic from all sides. They alleged that Rajinder Kumar from the village had himself set his Gypsy on fire and was trying to frame sarpanch Daljit Singh in the case. The agitators rather levelled allegations that their holy book had been taken away by the other communal group.

The villagers lifted their dharna after SP(D), Rural, Rajinder Singh and SP (Headquarters), Rural, Mukhwinder Singh went to the site and received a copy of memorandum from them.

In another incident wherein a communal clash was averted, residents of Wariana village staged a dharna in front of the residence of the sarpanch alleging that garbage had been deliberately thrown on the village common land. Members of the Valmiki community said pictures and religious symbols had been removed from the site. Adequate police arrangements were made at the site. Senior police officials intervened to get the issue resolved at the earliest.