Amritsar, April 14
Though the health department in the district has managed to achieve targets during previously-held polio immunisation drives, but it has to face a number of problems when it comes to arranging trained staff and motivating educational institutions and parents.

During the last polio immunisation drive, a number of reputed convent schools refused to cooperate with the health employees for administering polio drops to students. Later, the district magistrate issued notices to seven such schools after which they fell in line. The health staff said even parents sometimes don’t cooperate with the visiting teams.

“Parents rudely refuse to get their children vaccinated. We have to be very tactful while dealing with them,” said an ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Midwife).

However, residents of rural areas blamed the health teams of skipping their localities altogether.

“Concerned parents take their children to the centres on their own, but there are occasions when the health teams don’t visit homes,” said Jagdev Singh of Fatahpur village.

Even as most of the workload during the drives is shared by volunteers and nursing students, shortage of staff certainly affects the drives.

With the 3-day drive starting from April 15, the health department, this time too, would find it hard to arrange the required manpower due to Baisakhi holidays in the institutions.

When contacted, Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa said, “We are putting all efforts to train the volunteers and health staff. Administering drops is a bit technical task and trained staff is required to carry out for the purpose.”

He said the department has arranged for special training for students and volunteers. He said it is shocking when schools refuse to cooperate. Randhawa said parents and schools must cooperate with the health staff so that each and every child is covered during the three-day campaign.

Amritsar, April 14
The district health department flagged off a rickshaw rally to create awareness among residents on the polio immunisation drive scheduled for April 15 to 17.

Flagging off the rally, Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa said the rickshaws would make announcements in all the localities of the city to make people aware of the drive.

He said the people would be asked to come forward to get their children administered polio drops during the three-day drive. The children, who are have got these drops earlier and who are sick, would also be given the drops.

Dr Randhawa said Industry Ministry Anil Joshi would inaugurate the polio immunisation drive by administering drops to children outside the Golden Temple. He said the department targets to cover 3.51 lakh children during the drive. For the purpose, the department has set up 2,816 teams which would visit 4.45 lakh homes. Besides, the department has constituted 60 transit teams and 21 mobile teams.

Amritsar, April 14
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation has issued strong warning to property tax defaulters whose cheques got bounced.

Even as cheque getting bounced is a criminal offence and the civic authority can take serious note of this and file a criminal case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, the MC has settled for a warning.

As many as 12 cheques deposited by the liquor vendors had bounced. In all the cases, the reasons mentioned by the respective banks were "stop payment".

Joint Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said, "The liquor vendors, who have been on the wrong side of the law, have been communicated that their cheques would be deposited again within a span of two days and if their cheques bounce again, they would face the legal proceedings."

Vendors of three liquor shops at Mazboolpura, Sultanwind Road and Kapoor Nagar area owed Rs 34,200 each to the MC, but opted to stop payment at the bank later.

Similarly, another cheque of Rs 51,300, issued by a liquor vendor, who owns a shop opposite Mata Kaula ji, bounced. Another cheque amounting to Rs 20,520 issued by a liquor shop at Vallah area got bounced. Other liquor contractors, whose cheques bounced, operate from Batala road, Majitha road, Railway road and Mehta road.

Sushant Bhatia, superintendent, house tax department, MC, said these vendors are liable to face legal action. "These liquor contractors committed this crime just to evade sealing of their shops during raids. The MC has taken a serious note of it and has conveyed the vendors that they would face action if their payments are not cleared by Monday evening," he said.

There were 132 liquor vends which fall under the AMC limits. Out of these, 109 were defaulters.

Amritsar, April 14
A number of traders in connivance with railway and excise department officials are evading entry tax on merchandise being brought from outside Punjab.

These traders exploit infrastructure lacunae like broken walls near the railway station and railway crossing falling ahead of the station to unload their merchandise. Thus, they cause revenue losses in crores to the state exchequer.

People behind tax evasion have become so powerful and recalcitrant that many attempts by the Railways to breach the wall have failed. These gaps reappear within a short span of time. Sources at the railway station said packets of consignments cannot be unloaded from a moving train and cannot be routed through broken walls without the connivance of the officials.

The excise and taxation department is also grappling with another kind of tax evasion. The consignments are being unloaded without bills at the railway station. Sources said cooperation between the employees of the Railways and taxation department are needed to fix the problem. The traders have to pay entry tax, which is at par with VAT, on all notified items. Fresh instance of tax evasion came to fore when a consignment of 87 packets that originated from Kolkata was unloaded at the Amritsar railway station on April 12.

The consignment was without any bill. Even after a lot of efforts, the excise and taxation department failed to track its recipient firm.

PS Randhawa, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner-cum-Deputy Director Investigation, said the entire consignment was in the possession of the department. He said recipient firm remained untraceable. But he had managed to get the contact number of the trading firm at Kolkata.

He said if that firm did not pick up the consignment, then as per the procedure he would issue a notice regarding the material in the newspapers.

He added erring firm found to be evading entry tax could be penalised 30 per cent of value of goods. He said the department earned about Rs 15 lakh per month from entry tax and another two per cent CST on merchandise being sent out of state.

He said the matter of breach in walls have been brought to the notice of the railway authorities. He said they have cited the problem of moving heavy machinery to repair platform and railway lines.

TS Virk, Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, said with a view to curb the evasion of taxes at railway station, more officials have been pressed into service. He informed that an ETO, two inspectors and constables of IRB have been deployed. He said these officials have been directed to keep a tab not only at main gates but also at routes which have been created by breaking walls.

Amritsar, April 14
The much-hyped Intelligent City Surveillance Project, under which close circuit television cameras were to be installed at vital locations and intersections in the city, is caught in a bureaucratic rigmarole.

While the police passes the buck to the Improvement Trust (the main funding agency for the project worth Rs 4.5 crore), the trust officials said they have sent the project to Chief Engineer, Local Bodies, at Chandigarh for approval and were waiting for their response.

Considering the spurt in crime incidents in the city, the project is seen as an utmost necessity at this point of time.

It is pertinent to mention here that the project was announced by local Member Parliament in the presence of the Police Commissioner and Improvement Trust chairman during a press conference in June last and was to be completed by the year end.

But the project aimed at curbing criminal activities in the city has failed to see the light of the day. Earlier, it was contended that the project was delayed due to the announcement of SGPC elections and later assembly elections.

Police Commissioner RP Mittal said, "As the Amritsar Improvement Trust is the major funding agency, it was now up to them to install the CCTV cameras. We had submitted our requirements and report regarding the vital points and intersections, where these were to be installed, to the trust. Hopefully, they will start the project soon."

When contacted, Sanjiv Khanna, chairman, Improvement Trust, said the trust sent the file to the Chief Engineer, Local Bodies, for approval about two months back.

"We are awaiting the response. As soon as we receive the approval, we will call tenders and start the project without any delay," said Khanna.

The police has identified key and vital points in the city where these cameras are proposed to be installed. As many as 175 highly-sophisticated cameras, including 100 fixed cameras, would be installed under the project. The high-resolution day and night cameras would be connected with the centralised control room established at C-Division through dedicated broadband lines. Besides providing top surveillance that would help check crime, it would also help in better traffic management.

Amritsar, April 14
The health department and the police authorities are at loggerheads over taking a legal action against a restaurant from where a huge quantity of flavoured tobacco laced with nicotine was seized during a raid recently.

While the health department was insisting the police to register a case under charges of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police officials said consumption of tobacco was not banned and they could only challan a person if he consumes it in a public place.

On the other hand, Dr Manjit Singh Randhawa, Civil Surgeon, who had headed the raiding health team, emphasised that the hookah bar was running illegally in the restaurant premises. "As per our information, quite a number of underage children used to consume tobacco laced with drugs here. Accordingly, we reported the complaint to the police department. I fail to understand why the police is sympathetic towards these wrong elements", he said.

"The police should have launched investigations after registering the case following our complaint of suspected use of drugs. In fact, the police is not ready to investigate the case probably because of some strong 'backing' enjoyed by the restaurant," alleged Dr Randhawa.

Countering the claims, Police Commissioner RP Mittal said as per the law the police can only challan the violators.

"No case under the NDPS Act can be registered merely on suspicion. As circumstantial evidences did not reveal open sale of intoxicants, we are helpless as per law", said Mittal.

"Either the health officials could have written it clearly that drugs laced in tobacco is being used in the hookah bar, which they didn't. In their complaint, they had just mentioned about their suspicion that drugs were being served mixed in tobacco. It is not a sound reason over which the police can take a stand. Rather, if the investigation reveals negative results, the police officials can be in trouble," he said. He added that if the health department handed over the seized material to the police department, the police can get it verified from a forensic lab to corroborate the charges and take action.

Amritsar, April 14
The arrest of two robbers, who were involved in a shooting incident in which a security guard was shot at in broad daylight recently, by the Batala police from Amritsar has raised a question mark on the functioning of the city police.

They were arrested by the Batala police in connection with a robbery at a jeweller’s house in which they decamped with 1 kg gold and silver ornaments on April 4, the very next day of the shooting incident.

During investigations, the Batala police came to know about the shooting incident. They took the CCTV footage captured during the incident at posh Silver Estate Colony on the bypass road from Amritsar police. The CCTV footage led to their identification. Subsequently, the footage came handy to prove their involvement in the robbery incident at Batala.

The Batala police nabbed the accused from the Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar area, while the city police could not locate them even as they have the CCTV footage of the accused.

Although the Batala police claimed that the accused were nabbed from Mehta following a tip-off, the police sources claimed that they were caught from Amritsar only. The police has also recovered a .12 bore country-made pistol from their possession.

The same gang is said to be involved in several other looting incidents in the city.

However, Police Commissioner RP Mittal said as per his information the accused were caught from outside Amritsar city.

“I have to check whether they were arrested from Amritsar city. The information available to me reveals that they were nabbed from outside city limits,” said the Police Commissioner while adding that the accused would be brought on production warrant for investigations in several crime incidents in the city.

Amritsar, April 14
Auto-rickshaw drivers are going on strike from April 16 to protest against HC’s decision to stop autos from ferrying school children.

The strike was announced a day before the beginning of the prohibition order as per which autos could not ferry school students.

Following directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the district police held a meeting with managements of various schools and auto unions on April 10 and informed them about the implementation of the orders from April 17.

Amritsar Auto Rickshaw Union president Arun Kumar said with this decision thousands of auto drivers would be out of jobs. He stressed that ferrying school students provide them with a fixed salary. There is a no certainty of getting general passengers through out the day.

Moreover, minibuses cannot enter many areas of the city like the walled area, Mahitha road, Batala road and etc due to narrow roads. Autos can move in these places comfortably, he said.

He said traffic police and transport office must ensure that auto drivers are abiding rules and errant drivers are punished.

As per rough estimates, there are over 20,000 autos in the city. Agitating auto drivers claimed that autos would be off the road on Monday, which would cause troubles to thousands of city dwellers.

The police, on the other hand, seeks cooperation from auto drivers in implementing the court’s order as this would ensure safety of students.