Jalandhar, February 14
Vice-president of the district Congress committee Sanjay Sehgal has alleged that the state government is facing a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 100 crore by allotting five prime lands on lease.

He alleged that one of these lands measuring 42 kanal, 14 marlas and 37 sq feet had been given on a lease of Re 1 by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) to Rajeshwari Kala Sangeet Academy on June 19, 1963. In a press conference, he said the academy land, which was meant to be used purely for imparting vocal, instrumental and allied knowledge of music (as per the deed), was now being used as Apeejay School and Apeejay College.

Sehgal showed copies of the reply to his RTI application that he had received from the JIT. The copy clearly mentions, “No site was given to Apeejay School.” The deed copy also reads, “In case the land is used for any other purpose for which the lease is granted or subsequently approved by the lessor, the lease shall become void.”

Sehgal alleged that another land measuring 82 kanal and 17 marlas had been given to MGN School in Adarsh Nagar on an annual lease of Rs 600 since 1950. He read a line from the deed mentioning that the land could not be sub-leased as he pointed out that the ATMs of two banks were functioning from a part of the same site Sehgal pointed out that both schools had also opened bookshops and canteens and were reaping substantial profits by charging fee which was on the higher end. He asked Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to take steps to prevent the state loss or he said he would file a PIL on the matter in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Dr Sucharita, principal, Apeejay College, said she could not comment. Estate officer Rajan Aggarwal said the matter dated back to the time when he was not working with Apeejay. Efforts to contact Yash Raj Aggarwal, school secretary, turned futile.

Jarnail S. Pasricha, secretary, MGN Trust, said the deed had been signed at the time his elders were running the affairs. “I am not aware of the nitty-gritty. We are offering free education to children of all our class IV employees and even those children whose fathers are not alive. There are about 150 such children studying in our school. Ours is a charitable organisation and we are not taking any profit to our home. Whatever profit is there, we reinvest for imparting good education to students,” he clarified.

Jalandhar, February 14
Several activists of the Shiv Sena (Hindustani) stopped youngsters from celebrating Valentine’s Day in different parts of the city today.

Shiv Sena activists, led by its district president Narendra Thapar and city president Rockey Arora, visited several hotels and restaurants in and around Model Town and asked the youngsters sitting there not to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Claiming that they had not harassed any youth during their campaign against celebrating Valentine’s Day, Thapar expressed concern that the youth of the country were following the western culture blindly in celebrating the festival.

To a query, he said, “The Shiv Sena is not against love but against adverse effect of negative things of the western culture.”

AMRITSAR: Security remained tightened with a number of policemen deployed at various vintage points in the city in view of the Valentine’s Day celebrations here on Saturday. Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Durga Vahini activists burned the effigies to lodge their protest. They roamed around the city with black flags and reportedly forcibly closed some gift shops. The policemen remained deployed at gifts shops.

HOSHIARPUR: Activists of the local unit of the Bhartiya Jan Shakti Party, led by president Shashi Dogra, on motorcycles and scooters staged a protest march in the main bazaars of the town to oppose Valentine’s Day. They raised slogans against the western culture.

In a press release, Dogra said that Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party would not allow the spreading of western culture which was ruining the youth and spoiling the Indian society. India was a country of saints where women were worshipped in the form of Durga, Saraswati and Laxmi. He appealed to the owners of hotels and restaurants not to promote this culture and not allow young couples to celebrate Valentine’s Day on their premises.

Activists of the Shiv Sena, led by their Punjab organising secretary Ranjit Rana, also held protest march in the main bazaars in this connection. 

Jalandhar, February 14
Close on the heels of its successful Jeevan Aastha scheme, the LIC today come up with the Jeevan Varsha plan.

Launching the plan here, Sr divisional manager of Jalandhar division Girish Kumar said the plan, to remain open for sale from February 16 to March, providing guaranteed benefits on death as well as on maturity.

He said this money-back plan had two policy terms of nine and 12 years. The premium term was restricted to only nine years for both terms. The plan offered guaranteed additions of Rs 65 per Rs 1,000 per year for nine-year term and 
Rs 70 for 12-year term.

Girish Kumar said survival benefits under Jeevan Varsha were payable every three years. The minimum age for entry in both terms is 15 years and the maximum age is 66 years and 63 years for nine year and 12-year terms, respectively.

The premium can be deposited on yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or monthly basis. The minimum sum assured for ECS monthly mode is Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 for other modes, with no limit on the maximum sum assured, Girish Kumar added. — TNS

Batala, February 14
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal laid the foundation stones of two 66-KV substations at Shahpur Goraya and Shahzada Kalan villages, Fatehgarh Churian, 25 km from here, today.

Badal said the Punjab government had spent Rs 11 crore on the construction of the two substations. The power from these subdivisions would be provided to the Kotli Surat Malhi 220-KV subdivision. Badal said the government had given Rs 57.13 crore for the development of the Fatehgarh Churian assembly constituency.

At Kalanaur, Badal said 40,000 acres would be given to tenants on girdawri basis.

He announced that Rs 2.52 crore would be spent on the construction of a road from Dhariwal to Lalowal village, and Rs 20 lakh on water supply to the villages.

Rs 26 crore would be spent in the Dhariwal assembly segment for construction of three model schools, Adarsh school, repair of link roads. — OC

Amritsar, February 14
Punjab BJP affairs in charge Balbir Punj, targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also the chairman of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, said here today that the chairman had not visited the memorial for a long time.

Punj visited the martyrs memorial to take stock of the situation arising out of the face-off between the police and activists of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) and the Punjab Students Union (PSU).

He was accompanied by state and local BJP leaders, including MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and cabinet minister Manoranjan Kalia.

Punj said the PM did not find time to visit the place.

Supporting the police for taking strict action against activists of the youth organisations, Punj said the violation of law and order could not be tolerated at any cost.

He said both the organisations were part of the communist parties and they inherited violence in its approach. — TNS