Ludhiana, April 2
At least 102 tubectomy operations were performed at a family planning camp organised by the District Health Administration at the local Civil Hospital on Thursday.

Dr Manorama Awasthy, who inaugurated the camp, asked people to go for planned families to check the growth of population.

According to health officials, free medicines and a blanket were distributed among each of the patients. They were also advised on follow-up to their treatment. At another free medical camp held at Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha Charitable Hospital at Sarabha village, more than 100 patients, including women suffering from gynaecological disorders, were examined.

They were provided with free medicines, besides the facility of laboratory tests at subsidised rates.

Mandi Gobindgarh, April 2
A blood donation camp has been organised by the Desh Bhagat Institute of Education, Mandi Gobindgarh, in association with the State Bank of India. As many as 69 volunteers has donated blood at the camp.

Dr T.L. Sagar, Principal of the college, inaugurated the camp. The inaugural function was addressed by Ms Shalini Gupta, Director of the Desh Bhagat institute. Dr R.S. Shah led a team of 15 doctors and technicians from Rotary and Blood Bank Society Resource Centre, Chandigarh.

Ludhiana, April 2
The Ludhiana Central Excise Commissionerate, comprising nine districts of Punjab, has collected Rs 947 crore as revenue during the financial year ending March 31, 2005 as against the original target of Rs 940 crore for the year. The target had been scaled down by 8 per cent in February 2005 in view of the shortfall all over the country.

The achievement assumed significance in the wake of withdrawal of excise duty in July 2004 on textiles, reduction in rates of duties on iron and steel and paper coupled with eligibility of service tax as an input credit.

An increased sanction of rebates due to tremendous hike in volume of exports had further led to an additional outgo of Rs 45 crore.

Stating this at a news conference here yesterday, the Commissioner of Central Excise, Mr V.K. Garg, said the growth had been made possible by the buoyant activity in iron and steel sector, motor vehicles parts, cement, electrical and non-electrical machinery.

The department had not only been able to neutralise the impact of abolition of duty on textiles and withdrawal of warehousing facility on petroleum products, but had made impressive growth in revenue collection.

Other senior officers of the department, including Mr Rajesh Sodhi, Additional Commissioner, Mr Sandeep Puri, Joint Commissioner, Mr Rajan Choudhry and Mr R.L. Bhagat, both Deputy Commissioners, were also present.

Mr Garg maintained that targets of anti-evasion drive and audit also exceeded this year. The accrual under anti-evasion work had yielded over Rs 37 crore, with on-the-spot realisation being Rs 8 crore, while the detection of Rs 51 crore during audit was higher by over 75 per cent against the previous year’s.

“The financial year 2004-05 turned out be an eventful year for recovery of old arrears with realisation of a little more than 85 per cent of the target as against national average of 45 per cent. As on date, there is not a single old arrears except for those tied in litigation with different judicial bodies.”

The Commissioner while claiming that the recovery of service tax from 71 different categories of service providers stood at Rs 83 crore during the year, an increase of 60 per cent over the last year, remarked that the number of assessees, which was 4,212 at the beginning of the year, had swelled to 9,702 at the close.

“While revenue from banking and financial services, business auxiliary services, goods transport agencies and marriage palaces have shown positive growth, the near-total absence of mobile telephony in the commissionerate and centralisation of payment of tax by insurance companies outside the commissionerate have been the impediments in collection from service tax.”

He asserted that enforcement performance in service tax had been spectacular with total detection being more than Rs 1.5 crore, 20 times more than the previous year’s and spot realisation registering a ten-fold increase during the year.

Expressing the hope that the industry and trade would continue to put their might in the nation building activity by paying taxes and duties scrupulously, Mr Garg observed that the health of a nation was closely related to the health of the economy. The country, at present, was at a critical juncture to improve its infrastructure as well as to carry out a host of welfare schemes in order to bring down the disparities in income levels, he added.

Ludhiana, April 2
A drive by the Municipal Corporation to remove dairies in Karamsar Colony proved futile when dairy owners returned with their livestock within half-an-hour of the departure of MC team.

A team of the MC demolition wing, accompanied by the police, had visited the colony to remove the dairies in the morning today. But soon after MC employees untethered the cattle and left from the spot, the owners brought them back and tethered them at their place.

A Tribune team witnessed the entire operation when cattle were freed and brought back to their place. Incidentally, the MC team had not touched the structures of the dairies.

An owner said they had brought their animals to safer place when they had seen the team approaching them. “The team did not do anything with after children had started crying. They left the place without taking any action,” he said.

Holding the dairies responsible for the outbreak of gastroenteritis and subsequent failing of potable water samples in the area two months ago, the MC had issued notices to five dairy owners in Karamsar Colony to shift from the place within a week otherwise action would be taken against them.

They however, continued operations there. Meetings were also held between MC officials and the dairy owners. Finally, the MC decide to take action against them.

Mr Hansraj, president of the Dairy Farmers Association, led a protest following the operation. He said the dairy farmers had no place to go. He demanded that they should be given a place to shift and they would pay money to the government in instalments.

He added that the dairies were not discharging their waste into sewer and had their own pits to manage the effluent. He denied that the dairies were responsible for any outbreak of disease in the area.

Meanwhile, MC officials said the dairies were discharging their waste into the sewerage which was getting choked frequently. This was leading to mixing of sewer discharge and potable water causing various water-borne diseases.