|
|
|
|
Amidst chaos, MC passes Rs 279-cr budget
Congress councillors raise slogans inside the
MC House in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar
MC staff call off strike
Hoardings eating away power
for free
A billboard draws power using a kundi connection in Amritsar.
Photo: Vishal Kumar |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A pharmacist organises medicines in the Jan Aushdhi store in Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Hospital in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Commercial establishments have come up in the residential area at Taylor Road
in Amritsar. Photo: Vishal Kumar
‘Cosmetic’ corrections fail to enthuse realty sector
Dr Gurnam Singh takes over as new registrar
Mehar Singh, a mason and building contractor, constructs roofs using mixture of seven chemicals and bamboo mesh.
Minor girl raped
Rs 51 crore disbursed among farmers
|
|
Amidst chaos, MC passes Rs 279-cr budget
Amritsar, February 27 The moment proceedings were initiated, the Congress councillors led by its leader in the House, Ranjan Aggarwal, started raising slogans. They tore copies of the budget and flung them to the ground. A Congress councillor went on to occupy the chair of the mayor. Amidst pandemonium, the budget was declared passed. After which the Congress councillors left the house in huff. Aggarwal said all developmental works being initiated in the holy city were going on under the grants and plans approved by the central government. Aggarwal claimed that the SAD-BJP councillors were misguiding the public by showing it to be the achievement of their coalition. He blamed that areas under Congress councillors were being discriminated by not including in the development works. Defending the coalition-run House, mayor Shwet Malik said the Congress councillors were nonplussed for not having any issue and leader near the Lok Sabha elections. “Frustrated Congress councillors were not even ready to listen to their one word,” he said. The MC envisaged to spend nearly 60 per cent of the total budget over various developmental projects in the next fiscal. It plans to spend Rs 52 crore on roads while another Rs 60 crore have been earmarked to improve the infrastructure. Malik said vigorous campaign had desired results as the house tax collection that had gone up strikingly. He said the elevated road from G.T road till Bhandari Bridge would be completed in the next four months. The MC expected to generate Rs 5.50 crore from the sale of property and also claimed to get Rs 65 crore as financial assistance from the state government in lieu of the abolition of octroi.The corporation would also receive Rs 12 crore as share on account of devolution of taxes from the state government. Meanwhile, it is yet to receive its share of Rs 31 crore from the state government in lieu of devolution of taxes. Interestingly, it was BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, MP, who had managed to extricate the MC share from the erstwhile Capt Amarinder Singh led congress government after knocking the door of High court. A sum of Rs 29.40 crore would be provided for health and removal of disposal and cleaning of drains while Rs 2.43 crore would be spend for prevention of malaria and other epidemics. The MC would spend Rs 3.34 crore for the maintenance of garden and landscaping. Besides, Rs 2.30 crore would be spent for upgrading the fire brigade system. Malik said they managed to double the income of the MC through advertisement from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.10 crore since the SAD-BJP coalition came in power. He said liberal grants by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and guidance of the BJP leaders were behind keeping 60 per cent of the budget for development. He said work on 185 km water supply line, 28 tubewells and 15 overhead storage tanks were in progress. He assured that soon a factory would be set up to dispose off garbage for producing bricks, fertiliser and manure. Brushing away allegations of congress leaders, Malik said development was being taken in all 60 wards without any prejudice and added that Rs 65 crore would be invested for sanitary and other development works in all wards. Before the initiation of budget proceedings, condolence resolutions were passed over the demise of Senior Deputy Mayor Ajaybir Singh Randhawa?s wife Mandeep Kaur and his daughter Anhad. The house also condoled the death of senior BJP leader Om Prakash Kalia, Dr Shivinder Singh Sandhu and his wife Manveen Sandhu. Earlier, proceedings of the budget started with the passage of condolence resolutions over the demise of senior deputy mayor Ajaybir Singh Randhawa’s Mandeep Kaur and his daughter Anhad. The house also condoled the death of senior BJP leader Om Prakash Kalia, Dr Shivinder Singh Sandhu and his wife Manveen Sandhu.
|
|
MC staff call off strike
Amritsar, February 27 About 450 employees, including peons, safai sewak, tubewell driver, clerk and steno typist, have been holding sit in for
regularisation, release of DA and regular release of income. Addressing the agitators, the mayor said they would receive salaries for December, January and February. He said their contracts would be extended till March 31, 2009 and assured that in the next session of the house their contract would further be extended till March 2010. He also told them they would be also be given DA. He assured that a reminder to the state government would be sent regarding the resolution passed by the municipal corporation house for their regularisation in 2006. |
|
|
Hoardings eating away power
for free
Amritsar, February 27 Interestingly, at several hoardings, the electricity meters were mere eyewash as majority of connections were being run through the kundi wired to the streetlights as well as from the high tension wires of the board. The Tribune managed to find out that political bigwigs and private advertising agencies, who do not deem it fit to work according to law, owned these huge billboards, unipoles and hoardings on private buildings. Huge billboards and unipoles erected in posh commercial areas like the Lawrence Road Chowk and Crystal Chowk are glaring examples of the administration being taken for granted. Every inch of the footpath has been encroached upon and large number of these hoardings plugged through kundis to provide lighting on hoarding under the very nose of the electricity board complaint office on Madan Mohan Malvia Road. MC commissioner DPS Kharbanda, who had admitted to this glaring violation and leakage of electricity, said he had been receiving regular complaints from vigilant citizens. He said in fact only today he had received a similar complaint and had directed the XEN, street lighting, to remove these kundies and book the culprits according to law. Meanwhile, a senior official of the electricity board, on the condition of anonymity, said the board had also received many complaints in this regard. He said the matter has been brought into the notice of the higher ups in the board who had issued instructions to deal sternly with the violators and detect the power theft. The flagrant power stealing by big advertisers supported by political parties has become an organised crime which should be thoroughly investigated and the violators should be dealt with an iron hand to stop the leakage of power, said a social activist.
|
|
Jan Aushdhi shop starts 24x7 operations
Amritsar, February 27 Earlier the store used to operate only for 12 hours a day for providing drugs. Although the shop is still not able to provide several life-saving drugs besides medicines of serious diseases like diabetes and heart ailments, more and more drugs are being added to the store, claimed the authorities. What is more heartening that the patients from outside the hospital could get medicines, but of course by showing the prescription of registered doctors, said Manu Mahajan, in charge of the store and area manager of government-run pharmaceutical Hindustan Antibiotic Pharmaceutical Limited. Meanwhile, in order to give standard packing to all its medicines and to stop its misuse and copying, the medicine under Jan Aushdhi gets its own brand, logo, design and stamp exclusively to be used for Jan Aushdhi store and could not be sold in open drug stores. At present the store was getting medicines from five government-run pharmaceuticals firms including India Drugs Pharmaceutical Ltd, Karnataka Anti-biotic Private Limited Rajasthan Drugs and Bengal Chemical Private Limited while large number of private pharmaceutical companies were also vying to get a place in this fair price shop. It is pertinent to mention here that the concept of a fair price shop is launched under the banner of Jan Aushdhi by the union ministry of chemicals and pharmaceuticals a few months ago. These shops were supplying drugs at no-profit-no-loss basis at more than 70 per cent discount which is more comforting for the common man who would be able to get regular medicines at far cheaper rates from the chemist who were charging exorbitant rates. However, at present the public sector undertaking drug units were unable to provide enough medicine stocks to these fair prize medicine stores. At present the shop has only three medicines for heart ailment while only one as life saving drug. It also lacking in several painkillers, which is being prescribed by the doctors. Talking to The Tribune, Mahajan said so far Jan Aushdhi stores had been opened at Gurgaon, Panchkula and Mohali while two more stores are likely to be opened at Jalandhar and Bathinda within a week. When asked about the lack of medicines in the store, he said it took some time for proper functioning and timely delivering system. When asked about the delay in supply of drugs to these stores, he attributed the delay to the government decision to provide medicines under to its own brand and stamp. |
|
Commercial buildings mushroom in residential area
Amritsar, February 27 A large number of shops and commercial business complexes have sprung under the very nose of MC and in spite of best vigil more and more residential buildings were being quietly razed and in their place swank complexes have been built. Interestingly, the corporation had to notify and issue a public advertisement in the newspaper seeking objections from the residents of the area before declaring the road as commercial and then only business activities could be allowed. Several NGOs have been alarmed at the abrasive large-scale violations of the basic land use bylaws, under the watchful eyes of the municipal town planning department and other senior officials of the civic body. MC commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda while admitting to the conversions of the residential areas into commercial by unscrupulous builders and the owner of the residential houses said they have received several complaints against the violations of the civic bylaws, he said he would soon investigate into each and every case of such activities and action would be taken against the persons according to the law. The city of big colonial houses on the Mall Road and on the other roads have seen a dramatic change in the skyline including the constructions of big malls, office complexes and other business complexes have marred the sublime beauty of famous green boulevards. Several citizens have raised their concern over the deteriorating environment have suggested stricter action against the violators who are destroying the heritage of the city. Meanwhile, the corporation would have to pull up its socks and take stern action to catch the culprits and enforce the rule of law to save the city from turning into a concrete commercial region. |
|
‘Cosmetic’ corrections fail to enthuse realty sector
Amritsar, February 27 Association president Krishan Sharma said there was a big drop in the collection of the revenue from stamp duty from the property segment in comparison to the big jump during the Congress-led government. Giving statistical data to drive home his point, Krishan said the revenue has considerably dropped by more than 30 per cent during the year 2007-08 and 2008-09. He said the realty segment saw a tremendous boom during the last regime and the present SAD-BJP regime has raised the charges including external
development and the conversion charges to kill the fastest growing segment of the economy. Quoting the figures of the Amritsar district, he said during 2004-05 the revenue from the stamp duty was realised at Rs53.93 crore, which jumped to Rs 88.6 crore and during the year 2006-07 the revenue
escalated by 50 per cent to a record Rs 132.45 crore, which dropped to a low of Rs 100 crore down by more than 33 per cent and current year
was also depressed with a collection of Rs 84.59 crore. He said according to rough figures available with the property dealers all over the state, the Punjab exchequer have lost a revenue of Rs 800-900 crore annually during last two financial years. He said the government has to work out a bailout package with realistic taxation and charges structure to save this property sector as large
number of people were economically dependent on it. Giving a comparative study, Krishan said during the Congress government, the licences for the development of colonies up to 10 acres were issued at the district level through senior town planner while the present coalition government has fixed the size criterion for a residential colony at 75 acres thus aborting the projects in pipeline for the urbanisation of the state. He said that increase in various rates of development by changing the entire structure by the Akali led government have put a major spanner on the several projects which were under the conceptual stage. He said external development charges for residential plotting the group housing were raised from Rs 3.5 acres by at least nine times to the present level of Rs 26.78 lakh. Similarly for the group housing the earlier charges of Rs five lakh per acre have been unrealistically changed to Rs 60.25 lakhs. He said that commercial charges were further hiked to Rs 93.95 lakh. He said he land charges were also raised to a phenomenally high thus making the property projects totally economically unviable. The association said that the government should work out a better realistic strategy to give boost to sagging morale of the real estate segment, which is going through a serious credibility and financial crisis. |
|
Dr Gurnam Singh takes over as new registrar
Amritsar, February 27 Vice-chancellor Dr Jai Rup Singh, former registrar Dr R.S. Bawa, dean, students’ welfare, Dr A.K. Thukral, professor in charge (public relations) Dr Parminder Singh and a large number of officers and employees of the university were present on the occasion. Dr Gurnam Singh did his postgraduation in political science with distinction from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, and doctorate from Guru Nanak Dev University on Sino-Pakistan relations. He has 37-year experience of teaching undergraduate, postgraduate and M.Phil classes. His areas of concentration are international politics, international relations with special reference to south-west Asia, ethnic politics: national and international perspectives and comparative government and politics. He has supervised eight Ph.Ds and 15 M.Phils. He started his career as lecturer in 1971 at Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Karnal, and served GMN College, Ambala Cantonment in the same capacity from 1973 to 1975. He joined Guru Nanak Dev University in September, 1975, and was He also had stints as dean, academic affairs, director, research, dean, faculty of social sciences, head of the department of political science and school of social sciences, member of various university bodies and chairperson of the research committees. He coordinated and directed the research programmes in the university. He was director of the All-India Services Pre-Examination Coaching Centre set up by the union ministry of welfare from 1991-1994 and 1995-1996. He acted as the coordinator of the Joint Entrance Test for admission to MBA and MCA programmes of the state of Punjab for the year 2007-2008. He also conducted the Joint Entrance Test of B.Ed on behalf of the state government for the year 1992 -1993, 1993-1994 and 2003-04. He has been the president of the Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association from 1980-90 and 1995-96 and also the general secretary of the association for the years 1980-81, 1986-87 and 1987-88. He remained convener of the Indian Federation of University Teachers Association (north-west zone) from 1987-1998. He was the editor of the Punjab Journal of Politics (1997-2000), associate editor (1991-1996) and assistant editor (1980-1991). He had organised and attended several international, national seminars, workshops, conferences and lecturers. He has five publications, project reports and 14 research papers to his credit.
|
|
Roof maker enters Limca Book of Records
Amritsar, February 27 Interestingly, he has not used iron rods for the constructing the roofs. Instead, Mehar, a mason and building contractor by profession, uses bamboos with chemicals in place of iron rods. Making it to the Limca Book of Records, Mehar says it is his 30-year experience and knowledge of certain chemicals that he is able to experiment and succeed in constructing lintels with bamboos. “Main padhiya nahi par ghariya ha (I am not a literate but I am carved by time),” proudly says Mehar. He says the roofs constructed by this method are as solid having relevant good life span as the lintels constructed with iron. However, he adds, such roofs were cooler than usual concrete and iron roofs besides disease free and low on budget. He also claims to have developed a chemical, which helps in stopping seepage in the walls. He says after the plastering of walls there was no need to paint them as the colour was added in the preparing material for plastering. He claims that top executives and engineers of the cement manufacturing companies of the country had visited him to get the first-hand information about his techniques. |
|
Minor girl raped
Amritsar, February 27 The police has registered a case under sections 376 and 452 of the IPC and arrested Charanjit Singh. According to information, the victim, who is a student of class IX was alone at her residence when the incident took place. Her father, who is a truck driver, was out for work, while her mother had gone to market. Taking advantage of this, Charanjit entered her house and started molesting her. In her complaint to the police, she alleged that when she objected to his actions, he raped her. Meanwhile, her mother reached home. Seeing her mother, Charanjit fled from the scene. |
|
Rs 51 crore disbursed among farmers
Tarn Taran, February 27 Deputy commissioner Khushi Ram appreciated the innovative schemes of the bank and effective implementation with the active participation of farmers. He requested the bank authorities to establish a large number of dairy units in the district. Bank deputy general manager L.N. Chaudhary, while discussing about the various schemes, said the bank has come out with a unique scheme for dairy farmers of Punjab. The bank has also announced to adopt Bhaggupur village of Patti under its white card scheme to establish a dairy farming in the village.
— OC |
|
Godman Chandraswami visits Amritsar
Amritsar, February 27 |
|
Pranav qualifies for debate competition
Amritsar, February 27 |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The municipal corporation passed a budget of over Rs 279 crore amidst acrimonious scenes here today.
The state is passing through acute shortage of power. But kundi connections illuminating the huge billboards dotting the various vantage points and chowks seem to belie the government’s claims and cause losses to the already dwindling financial fortunes of the Punjab State Electricity Board and the municipal corporation.
