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Truckers decry new levies, to hit streets on Dec 12
‘Panchayats deliberately kept out of loop to settle political scores’
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GNDU programmer alleges caste bias by HoD
Ramoowalia gets SOS from Lebanon
Punjab Bandh Call
Sach Khand Bhavan inaugurated
Minister to go on stone laying spree
Programme on futuristic medicine
Illicit relations behind man’s murder
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Truckers decry new levies, to hit streets on Dec 12
Jalandhar, December 10 The new taxes to be levied include the city entry tax, sticker tax, goods tax and setting up of toll barriers every 25 kms. The existing charges for passing fee and other allied charges will also be hiked, he informed. The existing taxes were so high that many transporters had got their vehicles registered in Haryana where the taxes were quite low. Many truckers also preferred to ply their vehicles in other states for the most part of the year to survive, he further pointed out. The toll barriers at regular intervals too were bleeding them dry. A trucker is charged Rs 438 per toll barrier for a loaded truck and Rs 219 for plying an empty one. This burden cannot be passed to the consignee since they refuse to pay this fee, he said. Citing an example of the current high taxes he said, the road tax was Rs 10, 000, up from Rs 4,750 earlier. Similarly, the goods tax for trailers is Rs 15, 000, which was Rs 4,200 earlier. The passing fee too has been hiked from Rs 400 to
Rs 5500, he added. Citing an anomaly in the transportation policy, Sandhu said a transporter who opts for a Punjab registration number would have to pay over
Rs 20,000 annually to ply his truck in the state while it was just Rs 2,000 for trucks from neighbouring states. This is reason why people prefer to get their vehicles registered in Haryana or Rajasthan, he revealed. He also alleged that the transport department was on a challaning spree and each DTO has been asked to challan a pre- determined number of trucks every day. While the fines are sent to the treasury, transporters who have been imposed heavy penalties are forced to bribe the officers adding to their harassment, he said. In view of this, they have been left with not option but to start an agitation, he added. |
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Centre Scheme
Jalandhar, December 10 Talking to The Tribune, Khaira said the three panchayats in his constituency had been deliberately omitted to settle political scores since he had defeated former SGPC chief Jagir Kaur in the elections. He said 42 small and medium towns, including many nagar panchayats of Punjab, had been included under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme and the UIDSSMT. Unfortunately, Bholath, Begowal and Dhilwan had not figured in the list of towns to be covered for all around development under the scheme in the current regime. A proposal to cover them under the municipal development fund, initiated by the Capt Amarinder Singh government, had also been scrapped to teach the electorate a lesson for not voting for the Akali-BJP alliance, he pointed out. Khaira said his constituency was one of the most rural dominated areas of the state which had a very large population of backward classes, besides the Scheduled Castes. The three nagar panchayats had a population of around 16,000 each and lack basic amenities like drinking water, sewerage, streetlights and disposal of wastewater, he added. In the absence of silage disposal, the refuse of Bholath and Begowal goes untreated into the Kali Bein, the sacred rivulet of Sultanpur Lodhi, where Guru Nanak Dev attained enlightenment. Former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had personally taken the issue of cleaning the bein. But all the efforts of the government and social organisations were negated in the absence of effluent management, he said. He has urged the Chief Minister to include the three nagar panchayats in the scheme since the panchayats were ready to pay the 10 per cent share required under the scheme. |
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Vigilance quizzes college principal
Jalandhar, December 10 The college is being run by former local bodies minister Jagjit Singh in the name of his father Master Gurbanta Singh. Meanwhile, the DSP (Vigilance) confirmed that an inquiry into the financial matters was still on. It was also learnt that vigilance officials would visit the college tomorrow to assess various works that had been undertaken with these grants. Talking to The Tribune, principal Gurpreet Kaur said there was no financial irregularity in the college and she had submitted all the documents asked to produce by the vigilance. |
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GNDU programmer alleges caste bias by HoD
Amritsar, December 10 In missives to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the minister for welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, the chairman of the National Commission for Women and the chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights, New Delhi, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the complainant has alleged that from the day one when she joined the department, she was directed to perform her duties from the store room which did not behove the status of class-A officer. She alleged that when she demanded the necessary infrastructure for performing her duties, she was humiliated by Dr Amarjit Singh Sidhu, HoD, who told her that he knew under what category she had been appointed in the university and knew the calibre of people like her. Dr Sidhu, while feigning ignorance about the complaint, said baseless allegations were being levelled against him as he had always been professional in his approach and there were other SC members in the department who held him in high esteem as he always kept himself aloof from caste, creed and religion. He said he was in the selection panel when the said programmer was selected and there was no reason why he would discriminate against her. The complainant has alleged that the HoD did not send her name to be published in the prospectus and telephone directory of the university for 2006. The same happened next year, she added. “I got the name published in the directory on my own, she added. The programmer, in her complaint to the CM, alleged that she had also made a complaint to the HoD against one of the junior research fellows for misbehaving with her but instead of taking any action against the JRF, Dr Sidhu started finding faults with her. The inaction on the part of the HoD had given boost to the other JRFs and she felt like a subordinate to them, she added. |
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Ramoowalia gets SOS from Lebanon
Jalandhar, December 10 Reading from a fax in Punjabi sent by the affected youths, general secretary of the outfit Ramandeep Bharowal said more than 100 Punjabi persons had been stuck there since 1980 and their condition had worsened over the years. There were no jobs for them and all the money they had earned was exhausted forcing them to take refuge in Guru Ravidas Sabha Gurdwara, he added. He said the workers complained that the Indian embassy too had failed to come to their aid. Their pleas of consular access had fallen on deaf ears and those who were vocal about the callous attitude of the staff were soundly thrashed and handed over to the police. Intimidation and corruption had become order of the day and pleas to meet the Ambassador too had gone unheeded, the fax stated. Citing an instance, he said Gurbachan Singh went to the embassy in Beirut to enquire about his passport status. Instead of being attended, the officials demanded a bribe and when he refused, he was severely beaten up and handed over to the police. The fax stated that officials there contended that when the workers could pay lakhs to unscrupulous agents to go abroad, then why the hitch to pay officials for their services. All of them were told to engage particular agents in Beirut to get their cases cleared. Meanwhile, Bharowal said Ramoowalia had assured the youths to take up their case with the government. |
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Punjab Bandh Call
Phagwara, December 10 This was announced by Shiv Sena Punjab state vice-president Pawan Parbhakar while talking to newspersons here this evening. Parbhakar said though their party was deadly against the installation of the portrait of late Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the museum of Harmandir Sahib, it could not support any bandh call which could disturb the peace and harmony in the state. Parbhakar alleged that Bhindranwale was the creation of the Congress, but Akalis also encouraged him to instigate hatred between both communities in Punjab. Christians too against it
Hoshiarpur: At a meeting of the Christian Front and its Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, the members condemned the proposed bandh call of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan) on December 14 for lodging a protest against the installation of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s portrait by the SGPC in its museum at Amritsar.In his address, Christian Front Punjab president Lawrance Chaudhry said the Christian community would not participate in the proposed bandh as it was not a solution. He said the bandh affected livelihood of common persons who had to struggle during day hours to earn. 6 preventive arrests
Hoshiarpur: Keeping in view the proposed call for Punjab bandh on December 14 by the factions of the Shiv Sena (Bal
Thackeray), six activists were arrested under a preventive measure by the police on Sunday night. They are Punjab unit vice-president Ranjit
Rana, Shami Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Chaman Lal Ohri, Ashok Pathania and Mandip Singh. All of them were produced before the subdivisional magistrate on Monday who sent them to the judicial lockup till December 15. The bandh was called by the Shiv Sena to lodge its protest against the installation of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s portrait in the Sikh museum in the Golden Temple,
Amritsar. |
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Sach Khand Bhavan inaugurated
Nawanshahr, December 10 Amid prayers by representatives of different religions and showering of flowers from a specially hired helicopter, Biji Surinder Kaur, patron of Unity of Man - Kirpal Sagar, accompanied by saints belonging to different faiths, inaugurated the bhavan. Speaking on the occasion, Biji said the event was aimed at propagating ideals of universal brotherhood, peace and selfless service for the betterment of mankind as preached by Sant Harbhajan Singh on the occasion of his 75th birth anniversary. Delegates from different ethnic, religious background also took the oath to work from one platform.
— OC |
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Minister to go on stone laying spree
Phagwara, December 10 The minister would also lay two more foundation stones tomorrow. One is of a community hall to be constructed near Gurditta
Chowk, Hadiabad, and the other at Baba Sipaharia to install new sewer pipes.
— OC |
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Programme on futuristic medicine
Jalandhar, December 10 The conference was inaugurated by Lieut-Gen S.S. Kumar, GOC, Vajra Corps. The continuing medical education was attended by eminent dignitaries like Major-Gen K.M.S. Shergill, deputy commissioner Ajeet Singh Pannu and IMA president P.S.
Bakshi. |
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Illicit relations behind man’s murder
Nawanshahr, December 10 Pojewal SHO Prem Singh said it was found during investigations that Ram Murti lived abroad and one of the accused Jasbir Singh, a cousin of the deceased, had allegedly developed illicit relations with his wife in his absence. Ram Murti who had returned home a few days back only consumed “bhang” and other intoxicants with the accused. The accused then murdered him hitting him with bricks. |
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