Jalandhar, July 1
The Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Department has hardly any idea about the encroachment of its properties worth crores of rupees even after two decades of such encroachments.

Shockingly, the department is still in the process of gathering block-wise record of its lands, which are not only under illegal possession but also being tilled by farmers without paying any revenue to it.

As per the sources, work pertaining to the identification of such lands is still under process in the district and the department has failed to compile the latest update reports of all 10 blocks of the district.

The department is incurring revenue loss of lakhs of rupees per year due to illegal possession of such lands, which are otherwise sole source of income for the village panchayats.

Though the authorities are elated over the recently conducted exercises to get encroachments over a few small chunks of such lands vacated, less than one third of the total lands, which have being identified till yet, have been freed of illegal occupancies.

Talking to The Tribune, A.S. Bhullar, District Development and Project Officer (DDPO), said as of now, nearly 1200-1400 acres of land under illegal possession had been identified in the district.

He, however, claimed that the department has updated records of all blocks, except Bhogpur and Lohia blocks.

Extent of revenue loss can be gauzed from the fact that such lands have been under illegal occupancy since 1991-92 and a village panchayat earns revenue at the rate of Rs 8,000-10,000 per acre per year, which eventually comes out Rs 28 crore approximately.

However, the exact figure will remain unclear until such lands and the revenue thereof is calculated by the department. “Instead of adopting coercive methods, the department is pursuing farmers by motivating them to vacate the lands. Till yet, approximately 450 acres of land have been made free of illegal occupancy and the campaign will continue,” said the District Development and Project Officer.

Phagwara, July 1
Though Phagwara town is situated near Jalandhar, the hometown of Punjab Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, who usually crosses the town to go to Ludhiana, Chandigarh or Delhi, but he has never bothered to check the irregularities there.

Question marks on the working of the Nagar Council and the Improvement Trust are put by residents who are facing a lot of inconvenience due to large-scale encroachments in several parts of the town. Bazaars and service roads have become congested due to the encroachments.

The Tribune visited several areas and service roads along with national highway and found several illegal parking lots set up by private people. It was found that a few banks have also set up their own parking areas by putting up fencing on service roads. Several shopkeepers have extended their shops on the plea that the land belonged to national highway as there was no check either from the NC or the administrative side.

Shopkeepers have extended their shops and installed even tables and chairs in the verandhas meant for the facility of customers. A shopkeeper having only booths in Hargobind Nagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Babbar Akali Market was openly occupying and misusing double the space of the booth for making seating arrangements for the customers.

Similarly, the main bazaars, including Bazaar Bansan Wala, Serai Road, Gandhi Chowk, Post Office Road and Mandi Road, have become so congested that even a pedestrian cannot cross the bazaar as shopkeepers have displayed their wares up to middle of the roads in front of their shops.

Sand-laden tractor-trailers that are parked along the road leading to Hoshiarpur have become a cause of concern for residents of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar under the Improvement Trust’s scheme No 3. Then there are heaps of bajri, sand, stacks of bricks, rehriwalas and other footpath vendors along the road to add to the chaos.

Further, the road is narrowed by illegal parking of private goods carriers on government land alongside the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road.

The residents complain that trucks ferrying goods, bricks, sand and other building material from far-flung areas to various shops on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road remain parked there for days together. A large number of jhuggis have also come up on the nearby land.

People opine that if the administration removes all this chaos, there would be no necessity for an elevated road.

Jiwan Kumar, a resident of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, complained that residents were facing inconvenience due to the jhuggis and a haphazard parking of vehicles at the entry and exit points of the locality.

“Drunken truck drivers and migrant labourers living in the jhuggis use abusive language. They litter filth all around the area. Certain anti-social elements pass obscene remarks on women of the locality,” alleged Rajwant Singh, another resident.

The residents said repeated representations to the local administration and the civic body authorities in this regard had proved futile.

Though assurances were being given by Nagar Council Executive Officer Paramjit Singh to initiate action against illegal encroachments, nothing had been done till now.

The EOs of both the Nagar Council and the Improvement Trust could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Phagwara, July 1
Deep factionalism has been witnessed at several occasions between the two main factions of the BJP in Phagwara, one led by Technical Education Minister Swarana Ram and the other by Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia.

Jalandhar, July 1
Irate truck operators staged a dharna and held up traffic on the national highway to protest against forcible tax collection by a mafia allegedly enjoying political patronage.

The protesters also burnt the effigy of Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia.

Jalandhar Goods Transport Union president Vishnu Joshi said the whole scam was to the tune of Rs 300 crore and despite their best efforts to get the whole matter investigated by the government, nothing had come out of it, he alleged.

“Goons stop our trucks and collect tax forcibly, despite us having valid sale receipts from stone crushers,” he said.

Nothing was being done about this since the mafia allegedly had the blessings of the minister. All this illegal activity had been going on despite the fact that all sorts of mining was banned by the Punjab and Haryana High Court a few months ago, he revealed.

On the other hand, the mining department too hiked the mining fee by six to eight times which had caused an increase in the prices of sand and gravel in the state.

This in turn had affected construction in the state, causing a huge loss not only to the exchequer but the people too, he added.

“We also urge the High Court to order the government to start mining activity in the larger interests of all,” he added. If this loot was not stopped, they would approach the High Court, he warned.

Kapurthala, July 1
As much as Rs 9 crore are spent on training a fighter pilot, Air Marshal K.S. Bhatia (retd) stated this at the dome theatre of Pushpa Gujral Science City (PGSC) before the launch of a film, “The Magic of Flight”, on Thursday.

Bhatia, who had joined the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1950, informed the audience about different types of fighter planes.

He stated, “A fighter pilot of the IAF is included in its aerobatics team Suryakiran after 10 years of rigorous training.”

Presiding over the function, PGSC Director-General Dr R.S. Khandpur said, “A new informative film is launched at the dome theatre after paying a lease money of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per annum.”

The PGSC has successfully run large format films like “In Search of Great Sharks”, “Everest”, “Africa the Serengeti”, “The Alps”, “Mystery of the Nile” during the past five years.

The story of “The Magic of Flight” is regarding man and flying machines. The air show performance in the film features the most famous manoeuvres such as the classic delta formation and the vertical roll. The film has been produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films, USA.

Jalandhar, July 1
Deeksha, a student of BSc (computer science)-II in HMV, bagged the first position in Guru Nanak Dev University by scoring 651 out of 800 marks. Roopali Sachdeva of BSc (medical)-II secured the second position and scored 653 marks. Meenakshi Sharma of BSc (economics)-II stood second in the university by scoring 623 marks.

Students of GND University College, Jalandhar, bagged first five positions in the MBA (FYIC)-II semester examination conducted by the varsity. Aditi bagged the first position, Imrita, Preeti Gulati, Jasandeep and Sandeep Kaur secured the second, third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

Prashant Kumar Tiwari, a student of MA (music vocal)-I of Apeejay College bagged the first position. She got 364 marks out of 400. Deepika stood second by scoring 354 marks. Neha Bhardwaj got 352 marks.

While Shrishti Jain, a student of BBA-I of Apeejay College, got the second position in the varsity. She got 523 marks out of 700.

Jyoti Chauhan, a student of BBA-II of the Prem Chand Markanda SD College for Women, secured the 10th position in the university.

Innocent Hearts International Institute of Distance Education created history in its foundation year by grabbing three distinct positions in the examination of PGDCA-2010 conducted by GND University. The students, who secured distinct positions, are Harpreet Kaur (76 pc), Renu (75.25) and Ramandeep (75.25). All students secured 1st division.

Jalandhar, July 1
All the offered 960 seats of engineering of Lovely Professional University have been opted in the first round of the AIEEE counselling. The first student to opt for LPU is a 2852 all-India rank holder.

In AIEEE more than 9 lakh students appear throughout India. In Punjab only two institutes, other being NIT-Jalandhar, have participated in the all-India-level AIEEE counselling. The students who have opted for engineering seats at LPU are from 22 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Gujarat.

Jalandhar, July 1
The Vajra Vocational Training Institute (VVTI) organised its 15th convocation ceremony at Kalwant Hall in Jalandhar cantonment on Wednesday.

The ceremony marked the successful completion of training of 64 Junior Commissioned Officers and other ranks from various units in the Western Command.

Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Technical University (PTU), awarded degrees to the army personnel while medals were given by Major Gen J.S. Kataria, Chief of Staff Vajra Corps to the candidates who stood first and second in their respective courses.

VVTI was started on August 4, 2003 as a pilot project with an aim to provide expertise to the army personnel in various skilled technical courses. The training imparted at VVTI was started as an initiative to provide a second career option to the troops, post retirement.

The soldiers who have less than two years left to retire are trained in four vocations namely, Applied Information Technology, Motor Vehicle Engineering, Repair and Maintenance of Construction Plant and Electrical and Electronic Craft studies.

Jalandhar, July 1
In a major revelation under the RTI Act, it has been found that lakhs of rupees have been extorted from the public at unauthorised parking lots in the city.

The illegal charging of parking fee from the owners of hundreds of vehicles has been taking place right under the nose of the administration and judiciary just outside the District Administrative Complex on either side of the road leading towards Master Tara Singh Nagar.

Parking fee was also being levied illegally at various other sites, including outside ICICI Bank, near Vishal Mega Mart, near Kings Hotel, near Skylark Hotel, Lajpat Nagar Market and various hospitals, especially near Kapurthala Chowk.

City-based lawyer Rajinder Bhatia had asked for information regarding authorised parking lots from the Municipal Corporation, in reply of which he found that 11 sites had been allocated for the purpose.

But Assistant Commissioner D.P. Bhardwaj said the time period for all these contracts expired this March 31.

“As of today, there is no authorised parking in the city for roads. The issue has come to our notice and we are planning to take action against all those who have been taking illegal parking fee,” he added.

He further said that auction for the contracts had been held but no one turned up. “We are in the process of holding the auction again,” he said.

Bhatia claims that criminal action should be taken against the defaulters. “Involvement of the MC and administrative officials also needs to be investigated,” he suggested. He added that at none of the 11 sites, the charges had been displayed on a board as had been made mandatory by the MC. He complained that many parking contractors had even been charging double the amount.