Amritsar, December 25
Lack of groundwork has come to the fore in the ambitious Personal Rapid Transport System (PRTS) project the foundation stone of which was laid by Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal, recently.

Amritsar, December 25
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has once again deferred its pronouncement over the issue of awarding solid waste management plant proposed to be set up at Bhaktanwala, to January 19.

Residents of the area will have to wait more to get rid of the extreme unhygienic conditions which prevail here.

Commissioner, Amritsar Municipal Corporation, Dharampal Gupta said the court has postponed the decision. It is for the fifth time that the court has reserved its verdict in the matter. The court had earlier fixed dates as October 31, November 7, November 15, November 30, December 15 and now it is January 19. Even if the court delivers its final judgement on this day, it will take the AMC at least a month to finish formalities for awarding the work.

Earlier, MP Navjot Sidhu and MLA (Amritsar South) Inderbir Singh Bolaria had announced that a wall will be erected around the dumping site designated at Bhaktanwala so that the residents of the area can get rid of the constant pungent smell emanating from the dump, but to no avail.

AKC Company had filed a writ petition in the court against the authorities for refusing to award the job to it, but its representatives failed to appear in the court room today. Earlier, the decision was deferred for want of an environment clearance certificate from the company. Bhaktanwala area which has been designated as holy city’s main grain market and where over 30,000 residents live has been proposed for the establishment of the solid waste management project. A city garbage dump pond is present in the area. It has been over two years but the project could not see the light of the day.

The dump pond has been filled up to its limit and the AMC is facing a tough time to deal with the heaps of garbage, mounting with each passing day. Yet, in the absence of adequate arrangements for dumping of the city garbage, piles of garbage are being piled up right on the roads leading to the residential area, offices and fields.

All sides of the grain market, with at least 60 shops on both sides are covered with garbage piles. The place, which otherwise displays paddy and wheat grain during the procurement season, now has solid garbage all around.

In Amritsar, the idea of garbage processing was conceptualised in 2007, and with the 20 per cent grant-in share which amounted to Rs 16 crore, Mumbai-based Antony Waste Handling Cell Private Ltd, was entrusted with the task of lifting 300 metric tones of garbage, excluding the walled city area in 2009, as part of the first phase of the solid waste management project to lift the garbage to Bhaktanwala dump.

But the second phase of the project wherein a solid waste management plant was to be established for the processing of garbage hung in balance because another Mumbai-based company AKC whom the work was allotted and later cancelled, had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

AMC Commissioner Dharampal Gupta said, “We are helpless in this matter because it’s the court’s decision. It is wrong to say that the Bhaktanwala dumping site has filled up to its capacity. Actually, the dumping of refuse was being done in a very ill-organised manner, that’s why it was not being used properly. Now, we are squeezing the garbage piles with the help of heavy power ditch machines. It will be in order once the work is allotted to a garbage processing firm which can handle it technically.

Amritsar, December 25
A certificate of registration issued to a local doctor by Punjab Medical Council mentions the expiry date which is that of a day before the document was even issued.

The certificate issued to Rohit Duggal. Photo: Sameer Sehgal

The certificate of registration issued to Rohit Duggal, a doctor, has November 8, 2011, as the date of issuance where as November 7 has been mentioned as the date of its expiry.

Satish said, “I had submitted the relevant documents besides a fee of Rs 2,000. But in the end I get a certificate which has no value.”

Rohit alleged that clerks at the Punjab Medical Council Office in Mohali have made the mistake to harass him. “On October 17 when we had submitted the documents, the clerks there denied to take these stating that the clerk concerned is on leave. They asked us to come again on some other day. They accepted our papers when we put some pressure on them” he said.

He said, “One of the clerks even said you will have to come to us again. The clerks were not very happy with us but we could never think that they will take revenge is such a manner.”

Rohit added, “Originally, the document had November 7, 2016, as its expiry date. Later, it was erased and 2011 was written on it. The earlier date of 2016 is still legible.” He said the certificate bears the signatures of the president and registrar of the council.

Rohit’s father Satish Duggal, himself a doctor said, “Without a certificate of registration a doctor is not authorised to practice. Going to Chandigarh from Amritsar is not that easy.”

Punjab Medical Council Registrar, Dr AS Thind said, “When we dispatch a certificate we keep a photocopy of it in our records. Though the matter is in my notice but I will have to check the records before I can say anything. There are chances that the certificate holder himself has changed the date to defame Punjab Medical Council.”

Amritsar, December 25
Perturbed at the slow pace of clearance of import and export consignments at the Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post, exporters and importers heaved a sigh of relief after learning that the Integrated Check Posts (ICP) on either side of the border is likely to be operationalised by March 2012.

Joint secretaries of India and Pakistan held a meeting at the JCP in connection with the operationalisation of the ICPs on either side of the international border on December 22.

A city-based importer of gypsum from Pakistan, Randeep Singh, said serpentine queues of trucks laden with the merchandise prove that the trade is failing. He said consignments waiting for clearance for four to five days had become a routine.

He said it was not only a loss for the traders but also for the labourers, truck drivers and transporters who get paid less wages, besides lowering the tax income for the state and union governments. He said traders were upbeat to learn that the ICP in Pakistan had already been completed. He said the ICPs equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities could increase the trade manifold from the border.

The present infrastructure facilitates of import and export at the JCP can facilitate movement of 150 trucks a day on an average. However, once the ICP is completed it is likely to facilitate the to and fro movement of 600 trucks a day.

Revenue from the Attari-Wagah JCP reached Rs 30 crore till September (the second quarter of the financial year) from Rs 9.61 crore in last fiscal (2010-2011).

Indian traders exported 11,968 trucks of commodities to Pakistan till September this year while 11,618 trucks were sent to Pakistan in 2010-2011. Major commodities being exported are fresh vegetables and soyabean. Meanwhile, Indian traders imported 6,900 trucks of commodities in this fiscal year.

Besides other materials, Pakistan supplies gypsum rock, clinker (a kind of chemical used to make cement), dry date and other chemicals.

Citing the example of Joda fabric, being manufactured in this border district to be exported to Pakistan via Dubai, Sanjiv Sharma, managing director of a leading export unit said the company exports three lakh metres of the fabric, popularly known as Joda fabric, to Pakistan via Dubai every month. The fabric is made from viscose costing one to 1.25 USD per metre depending upon the variety of the fabric. However, the cost double by the time the same piece of cloth arrives in Pakistan due to transportation charges. He said the cost will come down drastically if the export of the fabric was allowed directly via the ICP, which is likely to be operationalised in the first quarter of the next year.

Trade and Industry Association Border Zone’s general secretary Raman Gupta said so far trade has been done under a restrictive framework. Pakistan imports many quality products from far-flung countries while they can be easily imported from Amritsar, which is about 40 km away from Lahore.

He said there were about 1.20 lakh registered engineering goods manufacturing units in the state and many of them were in the city. He said the industry here was in doldrums as it has reached saturation point and needed new market to re-invigorate itself. He said the small-scale industries (SSI) of the city will benefit from a spurt in trade.

Former chairman, CII, Punjab chapter, Gunbir Singh, said Punjab’s industries like pharmaceutical, engineering goods, and agrarian commodities like food grains and perishable items have tremendous scope in future with the operationalisation of the ICP. He said Lahore was the biggest market in Pakistan after Karachi, which is just 40 km away from here.

Amritsar, December 25
Petrol and diesel consumers from the holy city feel relieved at the abolition of octroi on fuel by the SAD-BJP government.

An employee, Pankaj Kumar said it was a congratulatory move as it will offer respite to lakhs of consumers from the city. He said the rising cost of essential commodities and requirements of their job had made it necessary for a large number of employees to move around frequently. He said high fuel cost was a burden on their pockets and adversely affected the domestic budget.

Following the state government's decision the urban consumers will have to pay Rs 1 less per litre of petrol and diesel. There are 189 filling stations in the district, of these 35 are in the city.

Sanchit Dhawan, a resident of Katra Karam Singh in the walled city, said he has been working for a factory at Fatehgarh Churriyan byepass for the past one decade. He said the distance between his residence and the factory was more than 10 km. He said with each hike his expenses have shot up. He said mounting fuel expenses forced him to snap his fixed savings to replace his scooter with a motorbike to enhance mileage some years ago. He said the relief of Rs 1 is considerable for a large number of employees like him.

The Textile Manufacturers' Association executive member Kamal Dalmia said on behalf of the industry in the border district, he had sent several communiqués to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to bring the rate of petrol at par with the rates in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.

He said industries of the state in general and the border district in particular depend on the raw material being procured from various parts of the country. He said neck and neck competition had already squeezed the profit margin and minor increase in the prices of products sometime meant losing out on the market share.

Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association president JP Khanna said the move may be because of the Assembly polls. He said he had written to the state government umpteen times on behalf of the industry. He said earlier Punjab charged 27.5 per cent VAT in addition to 10 per cent surcharge, 1.5 per cent cess per litre and one per cent octroi.