 |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
3 labourers killed in factory blast
Ludhiana, December 30 The blast ripped apart a portion of the roof of the factory and also damaged its walls. There were about 15 labourers in the room, when the blast took place. Though there were fears that the blast took place due to some scrap bombs that found their way into the furnace, the Focal Point police said it seemed that an LPG cylinder had exploded. The Focal Point SHO said preliminary investigations suggested that some sparks flew off from a gas-cutting machine, which fell on the cylinder, causing the blast. The victims were standing close to the cylinder when the blast took place. One of the victims has been identified as Anil Singh. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Verma, has directed the SSP, Ludhiana, to register a case and depute an SP-level officer to investigate the matter. The explosion was heard several kilometers away, causing panic in the area. People in a nearby market downed their shutters thinking that some major mishap had occurred. Only last week, a number of labourers had died in an similar blast at Mandi Gobindgarh.
|
|
Scandal in Braille Press
Ludhiana, December 30 It has booked seven persons, including an Additional Director, a former Deputy Director, Social Security and Development of Women and Children, besides a Child Development Programme Officer (CDPO). They have been charged with misappropriation of funds in printing education material as well as making audio CDs for visually impaired students in the state. The matter relates to years 1995-96 and 1998-2000. The equipment was mainly claimed to have been required for the education of students studying in Braille Bhavan, Chandigarh road, here. Six suspects were arrested today from Ludhiana and Chandigarh by teams headed by Mr G.S. Dhillon, SSP, Vigilance Bureau, and DSP Narinderpal Singh Ruby. Vigilance officials said those arrested were Additional Director S.L. Kajal, former Deputy Director Waryam Singh, Braille Press Manager, Joginder Singh, contractor Kamal Sood and two shopkeepers, Gurdeep Singh, who runs an AC repair shop in Model Town here, and Sulalit Kumar Gupta, who is a computer dealer in Sector 22, Chandigarh. They said the seventh suspect was CDPO Amarnath Sharma. He was not arrested after he showed a court order necessitating that he has to be served a notice of three days before his arrest. The Vigilance Bureau has served a notice on him. Mr Dhillon and DSP Ruby said the suspects were indicted in an inquiry and booked under Sections 409 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13-1(D) read with Section 13-2 (88) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. They said the suspects had forged records of sale and purchase of material, besides showing bogus repair work. They allegedly tampered with figures in tenders to help a contractor. Similarly, fake purchase of computers and air conditioners, besides their repair work, was shown in the records. Investigations so far state that the suspects have allegedly caused a loss of Rs 11 lakh to the public exchequer. The accused contractor and the shopkeepers allegedly hobnobbed with officials and arranged fake receipts of work claimed to have been executed. Officials said most disheartening note was that the suspects did not spare the things required by visually impaired students and misappropriated funds released by the government for these students. Sources said the misappropriated amount could increase further after questioning of the accused.
|
|
Fill vacant posts, demand teachers
Ludhiana, December 30 Teachers had met him on October 6 and he had assured them that the vacancies would be filled. The teachers collected in Chhattar Singh Park, Model Town, this morning and marched towards the Secretariat to submit a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anuraag Verma, who in turn, would forward it to Capt Amarinder Singh. The teachers shouted slogans against the state Finance Minister and the Chief Minister. They the government was dilly-dallying on the issue. As the DC was not available, they submitted their memorandum to the ADC, Mr Ajmer Singh. Later, they staged a dharna outside the DC office, where they were joined by other teachers’ associations like the Government Teachers Union and the DTF. Leaders of teachers criticised the government for not keeping its promise.
|
|
New Year functions cancelled
Ludhiana, December 30 This decision was taken at a special meeting of the executive of the Club, held here today under the chairmanship of Mr Anurag Verma, Deputy Commissioner and President of Sutlej Club, to condole the deaths of thousands of the people. Two minutes silence was also observed to pray for the peace of the departed souls. The Deputy Commissioner, who is also the president of the Lodhi Club informed that the New Year function scheduled for January 1 in this club was also cancelled. Mr Verma informed that responding to his appeal, Bhandari Hosiery Export Limited, Ludhiana, has donated 5100 T-shirts worth Rs 5 lakhs for the affected people. He appealed to the other industrialists and organisations to follow. He said that an NRI, Mr P.S. Dhillon has donated Rs 1 lakh for the Relief Fund. Earlier, a meeting of the staff of the District Public Relations Office Ludhiana was held under the chairmanship of Mr Darshan Singh, DPRO to mourn the deaths of the victims. The staff have decided to donate their one day’s salary towards the relief fund.
|
|
|
Hosiery shop gutted
Ludhiana, December 30 According to Mr Raman Kumar, the fire was first spotted by a passerby who was going to a nearby gurdwara. The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.
|
|
MC favouring select few, says Bansal
Ludhiana, December 30 This was stated by Mr Parvin Bansal, opposition leader in the MC, who said the decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of councillors held this evening. Mr Bansal said the ruling party was “trying to benefit some individuals” by amending certain rules and was not considering similar demands of a number of other city residents. He added that during the last general house, the issue of amendments was kept pending for the next meeting and it was unanimously decided that all TP schemes would be taken up together. “They came up with only two individual cases at the meeting yesterday. But we are not going to take it lying down and will fight till the decision is withdrawn,” he said, adding that they would take up the matter of representation in the Land Use Change Committee also. While there was a provision for members from all parties in the committee, they had taken only their own people on the panel, he alleged.
|
|
Rs 7 crore being
spent on development in Dakha
Ludhiana, December 30 Mr Dakha was addressing a function after formally launching the work for the laying of a link road connecting Malikpur to Nurpur Bet at a cost of Rs 28 lakh, at Malikpur here today. He said the work of strengthening and widening the Laddowal-Nurpur road, to be completed at a cost of Rs 1.48 crore, was started a few days ago. He said other major development projects included construction of two bridges over Buddha Nullah, including one on the Jainpur-Bagga Kalan link road, construction of a bridge over the Baranhara-Talwara-Bagga Khurd link road (at a cost of Rs 60.11 lakh) and construction of approaches of newly constructed bridge from Malikpur to Nurpur. He claimed the Congress government was committed to the welfare of all sections of society. He said stress was being laid on completely involving panchayats by giving these more powers. The functioning of seven departments was handed over to panchayats, he said. He said from November 2004, the government had started regular pensions to 14,800 elderly men and women at the rate of Rs 200 per month each. Among others who were present on the occasion were Mr Manjit Singh Hambran, president, District Youth Congress, Mr Gurnam Singh Azad, XEN, PWD, Mr Manjinder Singh, sarpanch of Malikpur, and Mr Mal Singh, sarpanch of Nurpur Bet.
|
|
Infighting hit MC functioning
Our Correspondent
Mandi Ahmedgarh, December 30 While opposition leaders have once again geared themselves up for another no-confidence motion, leaders of various social and religious organisations have urged them not to oppose proposals of development to be placed for approval of the House at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow. A review of the functioning of the local municipal council showed that some councillors were feeling sidelined by Mr Rajnish Sharma, president of the council and former OSD to former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. As these councillors and their supporters had played a major role in bringing a consensus on his name at the time of the elections, they started showing their resentment and ultimately moved a no-confidence motion against him in June. Since the MLA of the constituency was away on a party visit to Delhi on the day of the debate on the motion, it failed on technical grounds. Ten out of the 15 councillors had voted against the working of the president. The president continued in the chair, but could not win the confidence of these councillors. Mr Jatinder Bhola and Mr Sham Sunder, leaders of the opposition, succeeded in keeping the 10 councillors united despite the fact that the control of the council remained with Mr Sharma. The development of the town was hit during this period as there were occasional boycotts and rejections of agendas. Officers had a tough time handling the situation when constitutional problems arose. Leaders of the opposition claimed that the goodwill gesture shown by them on the intervention of administrative officers was not reciprocated. Supporters of the president, however, blamed some members of a management committee of a private-aided senior secondary school for disrupting the functioning of the council as Mr Sharma had opposed them on the formation of a committee of that school. Meanwhile, Mr Jagjit Singh, president, Kalgidhar Federation, Mr Happy Verma, general secretry, AISSF, Mr Prem Chand Jain, president Cattle Feed Manufacturers Association, Mr Bimal Sharma, president, Shri Ram Mandir Committee, Mr Inderjit Sharma, president Brahmin Sabha, and Mr Des Raj Sharma, president, Bharat Vikas Parishad, have urged the leaders of the opposition not to oppose the agenda items proposed to be placed for consideration at a meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow.
|
|
Central tax base widened, revenue up
Our Correspondent
Ludhiana, December 30 The Central Excise Department received a tremendous response to motivational drive for the registration of more and more service providers under the provisions of the Act and the number of assessees by November 2004 had risen to around 8500 as against 4000 at the commencement of the year. During the period, the tax collection from service tax touched Rs 41 crore compared to Rs 29 crore during the corresponding period last year. According to Mr V. K. Garg, Commissioner of Central Excise, the increase in the figure of tax collection from service providers did not truly reflect the achievement of the department since the payment of service tax by Life Insurance Corporation of India were shifted to Delhi while the Bharat Sanchar Nagar Nigam started making payment of tax on cellular phones at Chandigarh. The department aimed at further widening and strengthening the tax base as service tax would become operational on transport business from January 1 and at the same time more existing service providers, who had still failed to register themselves and pay tax would be brought in the tax fold. Under the regime of service tax, several major administrative changes had taken place in the department. A separate division had been created for this purpose in which three out of five ranges exclusively dealt with the service tax assessees. Mr Garg told Ludhiana Tribune that preventive activities were continuing relentlessly and the department had unearthed excise duty evasion of Rs 15 crore, mostly on textile and engineering goods. Quite a few cases of misuse of rebate on export of textile goods were detected and excise duty as well as heavy penalty was recovered from the evaders. Emphasising that the department had made changes this year to dispel the apprehensions in the minds of the assessees and to forge closer bonds with the tax payers, the Commissioner observed that the central excise and service tax were the essential components of a chain of indirect taxes, sought to be collected right from the manufacturer up to the retailer of ultimate service provider. The year turned out to be a rewarding one for the Department of Income Tax as the Chief Commissioner Charge at Ludhiana, which also included Jalandhar and many other small towns, saw the tax collections going up by a whopping 32 percent up to the end of October 2004. During the period of April to October 2004, the total collection was to the extent of Rs 229 crore as against Rs 226 crore during the same period last year. According to official sources, a total number of 1.5 lakh income tax returns were filed by end of Sept ember 2004 whereas the number in the corresponding period last year was 1.29 lakh. Citing a major shift in the tax payer-friendly policies of the department during the year, Mr Ashok Juneja, member of the Regional Direct Tax Advisory Committee remarked that it was through persuasion and motivation rather than coercive methods that the Department of Income Tax had been able to achieve impressive growth in the number of tax payers and sizeable increase in the revenue collection.
|
|
Service tax camp for transporters
Ludhiana, December 30 According to Mr V.M. Verma, Assistant Commissioner (Div III), goods transport agencies will come under the purview of service tax from January 1 and all units engaged in this business will have to get themselves registered till January 30 and make the first monthly payment of tax by February 25. He said the registration camp would continue till tomorrow. The registration is also open at the divisional office of the department. A team of officials of the department, including Mr Verma, held an extended interaction with members of the Goods Transport Association in Transport Nagar yesterday to apprise them of the provisions of service tax on the trade, which would come into force from January 1. Replying to queries raised by transporters, officials told them that certain perishable items like fruits, vegetables, milk and eggs were exempt from payment of service tax. Similarly, the consignments with freight charges of less than Rs 1,500 would not attract service tax. Mr Verma assured the members of the association that they need not have apprehensions on account of service tax as the department would be considerate to them and would strive to sort out their initial problems.
|
|
Pledge to check female foeticide
Ludhiana,
December 30 Volunteers pledged to stand against this evil and spread
awareness against this malpractice . Dr Sahni expressed concern over the
decreasing sex ratio in Punjab, especially in Ludhiana. She presented
data to support her arguments. She highlighted the causes of this
practice and said that there was a need for a charge in social values
and empowerment of women. Group leader Nidhi Jaiswal said the
volunteers would spread awareness about this in the slum areas, where
they were conducting teaching sessions.
|
|
Mittal is chief of Aggarwal
Ludhiana, December 30 Its delegates from all states, including Punjab, were to cast their votes on Jan 9 for election of the office bearers. Giving this information here today, Mr Amrit Lal Aggarwal, president, Punjab Pradesh Aggarwal Sammelan said other office-bearers of the sammelan were elected are: Mr Arjun Kumar (senior vice president), Mr Bal Krishan Aggarwal (general secretary) and Mr Ram Krishan Gupta (treasurer). Mr Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, Mr Lakshmi Narayan Jalani, Mr Gopal Mor and Mr Shrikant Morarka were the four vice presidents elected from Modinagar (U.P), Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Navalgarh (Rajasthan), respectively.
|
|
Resentment against PSEB
Ludhiana, December 30 According to Mr A.R. Gupta, and Mr Charanjit Singh Aulakh, vice-president and executive member of the Rajguru Nagar Welfare Society, respectively, they are being subjected to five to seven hour power cut daily for the past week. The cuts were being imposed without any prior notice, they alleged.
|
|
2004: IN RETROSPECT Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, December 30 Be it dacoity, robbery, burglary, theft, murder, cheating or fraud cases, the figures show a massive decrease in the number of such incidents. The figures also claim that the police had 100 per cent record in solving dacoity and robbery cases, but the same talent was missing when it came to investigating burglary and theft cases. Out of 126 burglaries, 74 were solved with success percentage of 59. The performance was bad in theft category, with success percentage of 52 only. Out of 330 theft cases, only 172 were solved. The only crime that has gone up as per the figures was rape. However, this was highly debatable as most of the times, the case of elopement of a girl is registered as kidnapping and rape once she is recovered. The police registered 3,502 cases this year in comparison to about 5,500 registered last year. Till June, 2003, a policy of immediate registration of a case was being followed during the tenure of SSP H.S. Sidhu. The figures thus suggested high number of crime incidents. However, when Mr Narinderpal Singh took over as the SSP, he stopped blind registration of cases on all complaints. He ordered immediate registration in crime against life and property, but made it necessary for the policemen to conduct inquiry into the complaint before registering any other case. It is for the city residents to judge whether the figures reflect the real crime scenario in the city or not. It can be easily established that a number of cases go unregistered in the city, but one thing that goes in favour of the police is that no gang was allowed to operate for long in the city. The police busted the Bauria gang, put behind the bars the key members of the Lalla and Rana gang, nabbed a number of proclaimed offenders on the run for the past over two decades and took to task opium and smack smugglers. The disturbing trend of the year was the involvement of children of good families in robbery and snatching incidents only to live a life on a high. A number of youths, who had taken to crime to buy flashy mobile phones or other material benefits or to arrange money for drugs, were exposed by the police. As per the figures, 50 murders took place in the city in comparison to 60 reported last year, 16 dacoities as compared to 21 last year, 126 burglaries as against 333 last year, eight robberies and 330 thefts as against 13 robberies and 723 theft cases last year. Cheating and fraud cases came down to 299 from 332. However, rape incidents went up to 46 as compared to 37 last year.
|
|
Held for
liquor smuggling
Ludhiana, December 30 The Palio car (PB-43-B-1645) was intercepted at one such checkpoint set up at Kirpal Nagar T-point. The accused tried to flee, but was overpowered. The accused is already facing several cases of liquor smuggling and is out on bail. The police was verifying if the car used in the crime was a stolen one or not. The accused could not produce any papers of the car.
|
|
Mobile phone shop
burgled
Ludhiana, December 30 The burglars broke open the lock of the shop taking advantage of the sound of the car engine. They did not spend much time in the shop and grabbed the phones kept near the entrance
only. Shop owner J.P. Baweja and his son, Sanjeev, said they were estimating the loss. They said they did not suspect the involvement of any
employee. The police said the burglary did not seem to be the handiwork of any gang. Some youngsters might have done it in the lure of flashy mobile sets, it said. The other theory was that some drug addicts could have committed the
burglary to buy drugs. DSP Ravcharan Singh Brar and ASI Sumeet Sood, in charge of the Ghumar Mandi area, said a team of forensic experts had taken fingerprints from the shop and these were being
analysed.
|
|
Biz Clips
Ludhiana CYCLE ASSOCIATION:
A deputation of industrialists from United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association met the Chief Minister on Friday. According to a press note, the delegation apprised him of the problems being faced by the industry. the members also thanked him for a grant of Rs 35 lakh for the construction of an R and D centre of the association. HUTCH: Hutch has announced 'Best of 2004' package for its subscribers. The package contains animations, logos, singtones, games, songs etc. A company press note said customers can download the wide range from quality of downloads available. SERVICE TAX:
Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry today said the issue of service tax has been further complicated by inclusion of road freight under service tax from January 1 next year. A press note said manufacturing sector would have to bear this burden which will hit the industry.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
