Jalandhar, June 26
It’s a classic case of taxpayers’ money going down the drain. The passport office here is shelling out an amount of Rs 3,55,400 per month as rent for a building which it has yet to occupy. And this has been going on for the last nine months.

This surprising disclosure was made by assistant public information officer of the passport office S Bhardwaj in his reply to an RTI query filed by Sanjay Sehgal, former vice-president of the district Congress committee.

The officer said the rent for the accommodation (second and third floor of the Ambika Tower situated at 14-Police Lines), owned by a private company, was being paid since September 11, 2006. It means that the office has already paid a hefty sum of Rs 31,98,600 to the owners.

It excludes charges for availing the parking facility. Presently, the passport office is located near Skylark Chowk.

In his reply, the officer further said a plot has been purchased from PUDA for construction of the passport office. The office would be then permanently shifted there, he added.

Regarding reasons for delay in shifting, Bhardwaj said: “Since shifting requires a lot of work, including creation of partitions, installation of electrical/electronics gadgets, the procedure is time-consuming. It also requires invitation of the tenders by CPWD. No individual officer can be blamed for it.”

Replying to query regarding illegal travel agencies in Jalandhar district, he said, “The particular information is not available with the passport office. Whenever something adverse comes to our notice, suitable action against the agent or agency is recommended to the cops. The information about the action can be sought from the police. In all, 351 complaints have been received during the tenure of the present officer and all of them have been disposed off.”

Jalandhar, June 26
Demanding that they be brought under the education department, members of the ETT Teachers Union organised a dharna at Nehru Garden here today.

Addressing the gathering, district president Beant Singh said that before coming to power, the Akalis had promised that the teachers who were otherwise working under the zila parishad would be brought under the education department. He said that even as they carried on their struggle for regular appointment for three years against the then ruling Congress government and won it, the Akali government should at least honour its promise.

Citing the reason for the demand, the members pointed out that even as they had been working for the past nearly one year, the zila parishad had failed to maintain any service record of the teachers. They said no record of leave was being maintained. “Our promotion is due on July 1 and we apprehend that it could take some time owing to non-maintenance of accounts. Even salaries are not paid on time. We are yet to get salaries for the months of March and April,” Beant Singh said.

Hoshiarpur, June 26
To check the quality of development works being carried out by panchayats and to ensure the proper utilisation of funds by them, flying squads have been constituted in Patiala, Ferozepore and Jalandhar divisions of the state.

This was disclosed by minister for rural development and panchayats Ranjit Singh Brahampura while talking to mediapersons at the local PWD rest house recently.

Brahampura said the flying squads with the help of local authorities would make surprise checking of material being used in the ongoing works.

He pointed out that development works in villages, including pavement of streets and drains, were being got done by most of the panchayats in unplanned and haphazard manner and did not serve the real purpose for which these were constructed. Moreover, the quality of material being used in them was not up to the mark.

It had been instructed to the block development and panchayat officers to ensure the holding of a regular monthly meeting of all panchayats at a common place in their respective blocks. A bulletin board depicting the total grant received, expenditure and balance with the panchayat would have to be displayed at the meeting venue.