Jalandhar, October 23
Over 270 structures that have come up along the GT Road and other highways in Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts are likely to face the jaws of bulldozer following fresh directions by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The court has directed the Punjab Forest Department to pull down these structures that have come up on the government land illegally in the past couple of years. Moreover, these structures have also been constructed in violation of the Forest Conservation Act.

Majority of the structures include business establishments like malls, educational institutions, hotels, restaurants, showrooms, farmhouses, marriage palaces and dhabas.

The structures had mushroomed in violation of the Punjab PWD Act, National Highway rules and the Forest Conservation Act (FCA).

Talking to The Tribune, Praveen Kumar, Conservator of Forests, Jalandhar, claimed that the department was in a process to issue notices to the violators. The illegal structures would be demolished after completing all legal form alities following the high court directions.

Sources revealed that the Punjab Public Works Department (Building and Roads) had submitted a list of over 250 illegal structures along the GT Road and other highways in Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts.

As per the Punjab Public Works Department records, 150 structures have come up along the GT Road alone, starting from inter-district border of Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Phillaur till Beas in Kapurthala district. More than 86 encroachments are along other highways like the Jalandhar-Nakodar, Jalandhar-Pathankot and Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, besides other link roads.

Meanwhile, the six-lanning of the GT Road, being carried out by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), will automatically remove 150 illegal structures during the execution of the project. The encroachments along the other highways will have to be removed by the Forest Department.

The NHAI has already obtained approval from the Ministry of Forest and Environment for the conversion of forest land into non-forest land.

Chaman Lal, Divisional Forest Officer, Jalandhar, claimed that a list of the violations had been prepared and notices were being issued to the violators. 

Kapurthala, October 23
The district headquarters will top the list of the towns of Punjab with 100 per cent water supply and sewerage shortly.

Kapurthala is the only district in the state having 82 per cent area covered under sewerage and 95 per cent under the water supply scheme. To bring the remaining area under the water supply and sewerage scheme, the state government has decided to spend Rs 25.30 crore.

Talking to mediapersons, Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board Chairman Dr Baldev Chawla said Kapurthala would be self-contained by 2011. He revealed that Rs 22.45 crore would be spent on sewerage and Rs 2.85 crore on water supply.

The Union government would bear 80 per cent of the expenditure, while the state government and the local civic body would pool 10 per cent each.

He disclosed that the state would spend Rs 4,400 crore on 131 cities and towns of Punjab to provide them with 100 per cent water supply and sewerage by 2011.

The government would spend Rs 371.38 crore in Jalandhar, Rs 66 crore in Amritsar, Rs 292.17 crore in Ludhiana, Rs 107.55 crore in Bathinda, Rs 109.25 crore in Patiala, Rs 23 crore in Malout, Rs 42 crore in Zirakpur, Rs 13 crore in Sunam and Rs 14 crore in Talwandi Sabu, besides some other towns.

He claimed the salaries of employees of sewerage treatment plants would be released shortly and the vacancies of subdivisional officer, junior engineer in the department would also be filled soon.

Chawla was here to head a meeting of party workers. Besides, workers of the BJP, Chairman of Trader Board N.D. Ratti and the President of the Municipal Council were also present.

Amritsar, October 23
The issue of alleged leasing out of over 20,000 acres of gurdwara land by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for peanuts to certain “favoured ones” has snowballed into a major controversy once again with former Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh asking SGPC chief Avtar Singh to come out with an explanation and Amritsar District Congress Committee (Rural) chief Sukhjinder Raj Singh (Lally Majithia) filing an application under the RTI Act seeking details of the alleged deals from the SGPC.

Bhai Ranjit Singh, who was asked to vacate the “kothi” given to him by the Guru Ramdas Charitable Trust, has shot back with a bundle of allegations against the SGPC authorities, particularly Avtar Singh. He has not only alleged that the SGPC had leased out over 20,000 acres of agricultural land to his certain “favourite” persons at a nominal fee of about Rs 200 per acre but has also accused the SGPC of turning a blind eye to a scam involving a number of top Akali leaders whose wards had done their MBBS and other courses from SGPC-run institutions without submitting requisite fees.

“If this was not enough, most of nearly 250 SGPC employees had become a burden on the Sikh panth as these were being used as cooks and drivers by different Akali leaders at their homes. A piece of 27 acres of gurdwara land in Shahabad Markanda in Haryana was leased out to a trust just for Rs 10,000.

Similarly, 20 acres and Rs 4 lakh were given to another trust under a resolution passed by the SGPC on September 9. “I am ready to hold an open discussion on the issue. Is the SGPC chief ready for it?” questioned Bhai Ranjit Singh.

He demanded the SGPC should issue a white paper on the issue and apprise the Sikh sangat of the deals.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh was not available for comments on the issue.

On the other hand, DCC (Rural) President Sukhjinder Raj Singh (Lally Majithia) sought to throw a spanner in the wheels of the SGPC authorities by filing an application under the RTI Act to seek detailed information on all deals, including the SGPC leased properties.

“I have filed the application with the information officials of the SGPC,” said Lally Majithia. He has also sought details specifying as to how the rights granted for live telecast of Gurbani were transferred from one TV channel to the other by the SGPC “overnight”.

“Five wards of Akali leaders, according to our information, still owed Rs 2.5 crore to the SGPC-run colleges. Now efforts are being under way to compensate the loss from the ‘golak money’,” alleged Lally. 

Phagwara, October 23
The Punjab government will accelerate its large-scale campaign against the social evils like dowry, female foeticide and use of drugs by the youths. This was stated by Social Security and Women and Child Development Minister Swarana Ram while addressing a rural gathering after inaugurating a play “Mitti Rudan Kare” at nearby Palahi village today.

He said the government would organise 40 such shows to educate and inspire the people to participate in the campaign being launched against social evils. The minister stressed the need for launching the 
campaign in rural and urban localities of the state.

SDM Amarjeet Paul, Improvement Trust Chairman Tejaswi Bhardwaj, Market Committee Chairman Sarwan Singh Kular, Deputy Director Gurjinder Singh and Naib-Tehsildar Mulakh Raj were also present on the occasion.

Jalandhar, October 23
Fire broke out at HDFC Bank, opposite Circuit House, near Skylark Chowk, in the afternoon. It took nearly two hours to douse the flames.

The SHO of Division No 4 police station, Satish Malhotra, said no casualty was reported and damage to the building and other infrastructure was yet to be ascertained.

As per reports, fire broke out around 1.30 pm and could be doused only after 3.20 pm. Eight fire tenders were used to control the fire. As per the bank authorities the cause of fire was short circuit. 

He said farmers had been paid Rs 1,314.57 crore, at the rarte of Rs 980 per quintal, and the payment of paddy was being made to the farmers within forty-eight hours of the purchase. — OC

Hoshiarpur, October 23
The property of six drug peddlers convicted by the courts in the Jalandhar Police Range has been confiscated by the police and process for 29 more undertrial prisoners is under progress.

As soon as they are convicted by the courts, their properties would also be confiscated.

Disclosing this at a press conference here this afternoon, Inspector-General of Jalandhar Police Range Sanjiv Kalra appealed to the people to extend their cooperation to check drug peddlers who have been spoiling the younger generation of Punjab.

To clear the backlog in the police, fresh recruitment at the district level would be done, said Kalra, appealing to the younger generation to participate in games and take to regular exercises to remain physically and mentally fit.