Jalandhar, September 22
Even as the town planning section of the municipal corporation has not designed any new scheme for the city areas since the past over a decade, the officials are now rolling a proposal to get all their 55 old schemes dropped in the forthcoming MC house meeting likely by this weekend.

The reason: There is nothing on ground that matches with the planned schemes. The MC authorities have worked with such a laid-back attitude that even before they decided to take an initiative to acquire land for the implementation of the schemes, the land was already a built-up area leaving no scope for them to develop it as per their plan.

Of the total 55 schemes that have ever been planned by the MC town planners, 15 are sanctioned, four have already been dropped, 18 had been proposed to be dropped earlier and the remaining 18 are now being proposed to be dropped.

But what has instigated them to take the action now is the fact that many illegal constructions have come up in the scheme areas which have not been curbed by the officials in time.

Now when certain groups are approaching the officials for sanction of building maps of the area for new constructions in the remaining vacant land, they cannot be passed as these would rather be violations.

“Once the schemes are dropped, a new construction would get legalised bringing revenue to the MC. A compromise for regularisation of illegal colonies would also be possible after the payment of requisite amount of fee,” said the town planning staff.

The areas where schemes have been proposed to be dropped since the last few
years include those around Lamma Pind, Preet Nagar, Kishanpura, Prithvi Nagar,
Sports and Leather Complex, Model House, Basti Peer Dad and bus stand near
Narindra Cinema.

The sanctioned scheme areas include Kailash Nagar, area around Sky Lark Hotel
and Sardarni Gian Singh Kahlon Nagar, where there have relatively less deviations
from the plan.

Commenting on the move, the staff of the district town planning department said the MC house could only pass a resolution in this regard.

“There are several legal tangles involved before the schemes would be finally dropped, especially the ones where the area has been sanctioned or technically approved. Even if that happens, it will not be possible to change the plan of roads, parks or other public utility areas.”

The MC officials would not even be able to issue CLUs to convert certain prime locations into commercial hubs without getting the roads of the area declared from the state government,” they said, adding that there were several glitches involved.

When contacted, municipal corporation commissioner Vinay Bublani said he was not aware of the details and the proposal to drop the schemes was mooted during the tenure of his predecessor.

Jalandhar, September 22
Scores of residents of Lasuri Mohalla in Danishmanda Basti held a massive protest in front of the office of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) here on Monday.

They were up in arms against the unabated sale of illicit liquor in the area and accused the cops of being in cahoots with the liquor mafia.

The irate protesters, including women, raised slogans against the administration and police authorities for ‘turning a blind eye’ towards the menace for a long time.

Furious over the police functioning, the residents alleged that the liquor mafia, which is active in the locality, is selling country-made liquor and hooch to the tipplers right under the nose of authorities.

They complained that boozers often create ruckus and use abusive language, forcing the residents, especially women, to remain indoors during evening.

“At times, they also indulge in scuffles and the cops prefer to be mute spectators. The problem has aggravated in the last couple of months. The residents have made pleas to authorities against the nuisance, but in vain,” claimed a woman protester.

The protestors were later pacified by SP City-I SK Kalia, who assured them that an official has been deputed to look into the matter. The SP also claimed that action would be taken against the ‘culprits’.

Jalandhar, September 22
The UPA government has failed to control the economic terrorism that would have far reaching consequences for the country.

This was alleged by Arun Singh, national president of BJP’s investor cell, while talking to mediapersons here today.

“It’s a fact that terror groups have invested huge money in real estate and share market but the government is not taking such instances seriously. The Centre is not even serious to curb the flow of fake currency in the country,” he alleged.

A small investor in the country is in dire straits, said Singh, adding that every fall in the stock market is attributed to the meltdown of foreign markets.

“In such hour of crisis, instead of giving some relief to such small investors, the finance minister is busy bailing out large corporate houses,” he further claimed.

The BJP leader said the government should appoint a Real Estate Regulatory Authority to ensure greater transparency in big realty deals.

“The organisation should have headquarters in Delhi with branches in all the states. This will ensure a check on deals that are not viable. It would also be of immense help to the NRIs,” he pointed out.

There was also need to cap the rise in housing interest loans that were spiralling out of the reach of masses, he said.

“We urge the government to make public its report on the reasons behind the 2100- point fall in the share market. Thousands of investors are virtually ruined,” he said.

Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal, state president of the cell, added that the party would be submitting a memorandum to the PM on these issues in the coming days.

Amritsar, September 22
To commemorate the battle of Dograi, which was probably the hardest fought battle of 1965 Indo-Pak War, Dograi Day was observed with solemn dignity at the Dograi War Memorial located in New Amritsar Military Station at Khasa, on Monday.

Major-General PS Paul, VSM, General Officer Commanding of Panther Division along with Col OJS Khangura officiating commander Dograi Brigade laid wreaths on the Dograi memorial.

General-Officer-Commanding informed the media that 3 Jat played a major role in clinching the victory, though 70 of its men were killed and 147 injured. 76 in total Indian soldiers laid down their lives in action, he added.

Dograi Brigade was honoured with 3 Mahavir Chakras, 8 Vir Chakras, 15 Sena Medals and 10 Chief of Army Staff commendation cards.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, the GOC interacted with the ex-servicemen and discussed their problems.

Amritsar, September 22
Even as the feud between the mayor and senior deputy mayor over the issue of solid waste management plant failed to die down, the alleged advertisement scam to the tune of Rs 1 crore has started haunting the civic authorities.

Some Akali councillors, led by Amarjit Singh, general secretary of the district unit of the SAD, today alleged that some advertisers in connivance with municipal corporation officials were defrauding the corporation by showing the size of space hired for advertisements smaller than actual thus causing loss to the exchequer.

Amarjit Singh said on the one hand the corporation was deputing more inspectors for collecting house tax worth several lakhs, but on the other hand no attention was being paid to collect the advertisement tax from private advertisers.

He said matter had been brought into the knowledge of the MC commissioner and mayor many times, but nothing was done so far.

However, D.P.S. Kharbanda, commissioner, said the matter was in their notice and he had deputed officials for ascertaining the facts and prepare a report after personally visiting the areas and compare it with the records of the corporation.

He said action would be taken against employees and advertisers if anomaly was found. He said there was no soft corner for any committing fraud with authorities.

Meanwhile, Amarjit Singh, along with other councillors, including Jatinder Pal Singh Ghuman, Harbhajan Kaur and Prabhjot Kaur, alleged that many illegal “unipoles” had come up in the city with due knowledge of the top authorities in the corporation.

He said they had prepared the detailed list after personally visiting advertisement sites in the city and submitted it to the corporation.

He secured 52 votes out of total 82 polled. Meanwhile, Dr Navdeep Singh Brar of same group was elected as secretary of the association by beating Dr SS Romana.