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Suvidha centres not so convenient
Deputy CM woos industry, banks on trade with Pak
Aided school teachers hold protest rally
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Gurdaspur a fortress ahead of protest by radicals tomorrow
Harpreet Abduction Case
Crying ‘nepotism’, DCC president supports rebels
Captain to move court against ‘arbitrary’ rejection of papers
Petrol price hike: PPP to support bandh on May 31
Hotel owners around Golden Temple in tizzy
Ludhiana continues to reel under power crisis
Traffic snarl The Tribune lensman Rajesh Sachar shows a long queue of vehicles that were part of the cavalcade of a municipal corporation poll candidate who filed his nomination papers on Saturday. Such shows of might have become a routine in Patiala nowadays, leading to frequent traffic blockades on the city’s streets.
Cooperation dept to start recruitment
Now, Duronto to stop at
Jalandhar, Ludhiana
Sacha Saudha chief files plea for passport
Punjabi University recruitment scam
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Suvidha centres not so convenient
Moga, May 26 For an arms licence, the state government has fixed a fee of Rs 100 for a .12 bore gun, Rs 150 for any rifle and Rs 200 for a revolver or pistol. But, suvidha centres charge Rs 570 for each application as facilitation charges apart from government fee and Rs 20 as cost of the application form. It means if a person applies for a .12 bore gun, he ends up paying Rs 670 at a suvidha counter for acceptance of his application form. The facilitation charges are 5.7 times higher than the actual fee. For a duplicate arms licence, the government fee is Rs 100 while facilitation charges are Rs 225. However, there is no government fee for entry of weapon in arms licence, deletion of weapon, no objection certificate for import of weapon, application for entry of retainers, addition of weapon, permission to carry weapon and disposal of weapon due to death. But, suvidha centres charge Rs 225 each for these services. Suvidha centres also get Rs 225 as facilitation charges from Army personnel for a no-objection certificate for carrying a private weapon. If you are unmarried and want a certificate, you have to pay facilitation charges of Rs 225 even as there is no fee fixed by the government for the certificate. The facilitation charges for getting a marriage certificate are Rs 570 apart from government fee of Rs 200 and Rs 20 as the cost of the application form. There is no government fee for countersigning of any documents, issuance or renewal of stamp vendor or deed writers' licence, issuance of nationality certificate and copy of any government document. But, suvidha centres charge Rs 115, Rs 55, Rs 25 and Rs 35 as facilitation charges, respectively. There is no government fee for making a ration card, change of name in ration card, addition and deletion of name, change of address, replacement of ration card and duplicate ration card. But, suvidha centres get Rs 15 as service charges apart from the cost of application form for each of these services. There is also no government fee for issuance of an affidavit. But, suvidha centres charge Rs 25 as facilitation charges, Rs 115 for issuance of various permissions and Rs 55 for indemnity bonds and surety bonds. The facilitation charges for issuance of pesticide and fertilizer licence is Rs 115 each apart from prescribed government fee and cost of application form. There is no government fee for change of shop, change of firm or company and extra godown for pesticide. But, the centres charge Rs 115 as facilitation charges for each of these services. Another factor that has come to light is that suvidha centres do not accept forms downloaded from government or district administration websites and rather force the people to purchase forms from sale counters. Moga DC's ‘diktat’ adds to woes Moga District Magistrate Arshdeep Singh Thind has imposed a ban by issuing verbal orders on the sale of forms for arms licences. As a result, a person interested in getting an arms licence made first has to write an application on plain paper to the DM and then go to his office to seek nod for purchasing application form from sale counter. An application form downloaded from the district administration's website is not accepted, said Gurmail Singh, a local resident.
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Deputy CM woos industry, banks on trade with Pak
New Delhi, May 26 In the national capital today, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal met heads of major industrial houses and set a target to achieve an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore (approx $19 billion) spread over the next three years. Though successive state governments have made attempts at getting investment, this time around the state has a slew of things going in its favour: Power is set to be surplus in the coming 18 months with the commissioning of new plants; the tax holiday in Himachal ended on March 31 this year; trade with Pakistan is expected to grow; and the Ludhiana-Kolkata freight corridor is coming up. Besides, unstable law and order conditions in Maoist-hit Central India have shifted investment to North India, sources said. A Punjab Government spokesman said Sukhbir today met heads of several known business houses such as Malwinder Singh of Fortis Healthcare, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Group, Gautam Thapar of Ballarpur Group, Kamal Oswal of Nahar Group, Rajiv Singh and Mohit Gujral of DLF, Atul Punj of Punj Llyod, Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Neeraj Saluja of SEL Manufacturing, Manoj Gaur of Jay Pee, Rajinder Gupta of Trident and Ashok Nambiar representing Raunak Enterprises. It was decided the government would come out with a plan for setting up industrial clusters and two modern townships. The government may also explain how it wants to project Amritsar on the international tourist map, and take major initiatives for skill development of the youth to make them employable in the industry. The meeting also discussed setting up of a smart city, Medicity and an Educity in Greater Mohali Area. Badal will lead a delegation of entrepreneurs across the border in August to explore the Pakistani markets. Badal said he wanted to make the industry department investor friendly. The Punjab Government has already made preparations to acquire substantial land to create a land bank for industry. Badal said the next cabinet meeting would come out with an ordinance for the upkeep and maintenance of existing industrial areas.
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Aided school teachers hold protest rally
Jalandhar, May 26 However, when the protesting teachers went to gherao the house of Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal here today, the police stopped them from doing so. Later, the Minister met a delegation of six teachers at his house and arranged a conversation with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The Chief Minister assured the delegation that their grievances would be addressed after a meeting with the Education Minister and Principal Secretary, Education, within a week. As many as 3,000 teachers gathered at the Sain Dass School to hold a rally and demanded that they should be merged with the government schools. They decided to hold another agitation on May 30 at Ludhiana if their demands were not accepted. Their demanded that vacant posts in aided schools should be filled at the earliest. As many as 6,000 posts of teachers are still lying vacant in the state. They demanded that salaries, HRA and medical allowance should be given to them according to the 5th Pay Commission.
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Gurdaspur a fortress ahead of protest by radicals tomorrow
Gurdaspur, May 26 Violence rocked the city in March in the aftermath of Balwant Singh Rajoana's conviction in the ex-CM Beant Singh's murder. Curfew was imposed in the town to restore order in the city. Many Sikh outfits have announced that they will assemble at the busy Kahnuwan Chowk in the heart of the town, which remained a hotbed of militancy late in the eighties, on May 28. The presence of former Babbar Khalsa International
(BKI) chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, chief of the Damdami Taksal Harnam Singh Dhuma and SGPC member Baldev Singh Sirsa in the city in the recent past set alarm bells ringing in the police circles. Senior Superintendent of Police RS Brar said an elaborate two-tier security cover has been put in place and the town has been sealed. The police is also keeping a close watch on known radical groups and is trying to ensure that hardliners stayed away from May 28 rally. Over two dozen strategic points have been identified for round-the-clock surveillance. The SSP is monitoring the situation. Senior Police officers and SAD MLA Gurbachan Singh Babbehali are working in tandem to ensure that peace prevails in the town. The radicals have demanded that all the 16 members of the Hindu Shiv Sena against whom a case was registered be arrested. However, a local court yesterday granted bail to all the accused. Two inquiries are being held into the death of the student -- one by a Special Investigating Team under DIG (Border range) Ram Singh and the other by the Commissioner
(Jalandhar Division).
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Harpreet Abduction Case
Chandigarh, May 26 In a reply to the pleas for suspension of sentence filed by Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, Nishan Singh and Paramjit Singh, the CBI has added there was sufficient evidence on record against them. The reply submitted through CBI special public prosecutor RK Handa further added that the trial court judgment does not call for interference as it has convicted the accused after considering the evidence available on record and passed a reasonable order. The reply is expected to be taken up by the High Court on Monday. The reply came just about a month after the trial court held: "The prosecution has been able to prove that accused Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, Paramjit Singh Raipur and Nishan Singh abducted Harpreet Kaur, who was a major, by deceitful means…." Dhesi was Bibi's "trusted friend" and related to Paramjit Singh Raipur, who was Bibi's political confidant. The trial court had also held: "A conspiracy was hatched for terminating Harpreet's pregnancy with accused Bibi Jagir Kaur. However, because the status, political and social, of Bibi was to be safeguarded at all costs, the latter distanced herself from the process of executing the conspiracy and accused Dalwinder Kaur Dheshi, Paramjit Singh Raipur and Nishan Singh, along with approver Dr Balwinder Singh Sohal, took upon themselves to accomplish the object of conspiracy by keeping Bibi Jagir Kaur informed of the developments from time to time".
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Union MoS writes to Sukhbir on vendetta
New Delhi, May 26 Ashwani Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, hails from Gurdaspur and has highlighted the cases in Gurdaspur and Amritsar. The Minister has asked Sukhbir, who is also the Home Minister of Punjab, to have these cases probed and see if these were cases of political vendetta. He has supplied the list with names, address, FIR numbers and police station concerned. The Union Minister has asked the Deputy Chief Minister "to do justice" and "ensure nobody is booked on grounds of his political leanings". There have been widespread allegations against the ruling SAD-BJP combine of having implicated Congress workers in false cases in the past five-years. In Gurdaspur, the problem is even more acute as several of the SAD stalwarts lost in the Assembly elections. But, they still call the shots at the level of the SSP or the SHO. Politically they want to control the people through the police stations. Recently when new DGP SS Saini initiated reforms, he disallowed the SSP to carry along their favourite SHOs with them on posting.
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Cong dissidents refuse to relent
Ludhiana, May 26 Forum, an outfit floated by Congress dissidents who turned rebel after being denied the party ticket, convener Varun Mehta said, "So far, we have fielded Independents from 20 wards (12 candidates were announced on May 24). Ours is a group of workers loyal to the Congress who would not join any other party. But, we can’t see staunch supporters getting sidelines. We will release our manifesto after filing nominations on May 30.” The list includes Bitu Sandhu (ward 1), Kala Jain Navkar (ward 19), Gurmel Singh Mela (ward 46), Karnal Singh Tattla (ward 59), Satwant Kaur (ward 57), Poonam Malhotra (ward 51), Shammi Puri (ward 30) and Dolly Thapar (ward 35). About Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh’s warning of a stern action against those indulging in anti-party activities, Mehta said, “The Punjab Congress is leaderless. Such statements are only aimed at curbing the voice of loyal workers. What action did Captain take against those who indulged in anti-party activities during the Vidhan Sabha elections?” Ludhiana Congress Committee (Urban) chief Pawan Dewan too supported Mehta’s contention, “Giving the party ticket to the kith and kin of senior leaders is sure to hit the morale of party workers. I also discussed the issue with Congress’ Punjab affairs incharge Gulchain Singh
Charak."
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Crying ‘nepotism’, DCC president supports rebels
Ludhiana, May 26 Dewan has been unhappy with the distribution of the ticket. He had said on record that "loyal and dedicated party workers had been ignored in the process". Alleging nepotism in the distribution of the tickets, he had said the distribution of the party ticket to the kith and kin of the party leaders had demoralised the workers. "The workers are the backbone of our party and it is unfair to ignore them," he had earlier told mediapersons. Sources said Dewan was peeved over the role of some MLAs in distribution of the party ticket for the MC poll. He had reportedly conveyed his unhappiness to Punjab Congress affairs incharge Gulchain Singh Charak in the last few days. He is also learnt to have gone to Delhi to apprise the high command of "nepotism" in ticket distribution. The party's screening committee chairman, Lal Singh, could not be contacted.
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Captain to move court against ‘arbitrary’ rejection of papers
Chandigarh, May 26 Referring to rejection of nomination papers of Congress candidates, Amarinder said the officials responsible for conducting the civic election must not buckle under
Akalis' pressure and do their duty as per law. The Punjab Congress president said, "Apart from taking up the matter in the court of law, the party will hold protests wherever there are any such wrongdoings."
Amarinder said besides Valtoha, the Akalis had allegedly got rejected the papers of Congress supporters in
Faridkot, Kotkapura and a few other places. He claimed it only showed that the Akalis did not have the confidence and, therefore, were resorting to "undemocratic" methods.
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Petrol price hike: PPP to support bandh on May 31
Patiala, May 26 Chief spokesman of PPP Bir Devinder Singh said the unprecedented increase in the petrol price would directly affect the common man. “It is atrocious to inflict such a big blow to the over-burdened middle and the working class, who are already reeling under uncontrolled inflation,” he said. Bir Devinder said the PPP had directed all its district units to fully support the bandh. “The district units have been asked to submit memorandum to the Deputy Commissioners of their respective districts on May 31, seeking immediate rollback of the hike in petrol price. Volunteers of the PPP will wear black badges on May 31. They will make sure that the protests are peaceful by all means,” he said.
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Hotel owners around Golden Temple in tizzy
Amritsar, May 26 In a memorandum submitted to the MC Commissioner, the hoteliers, under the banner of Hotel Restaurant Welfare Association, said on one hand the government was making efforts to promote the holy city as a tourism hub and on the other, the local administration was sabotaging its tourism policy by “forcing closure” of small hotels and guest houses meant for tourists. They demanded that the administration should be directed not to create “misunderstandings” regarding the HC order. The hoteliers took out a protest march from Jallianwalla Bagh in support of their demands. Association president Surinder Singh said there were over 150 hotels in the walled city and a majority of them were constructed on less than 150 square yards area. He said they had been regularly paying annual commercial house tax, conservation tax, water supply and sewerage taxes to the MC. Besides, they pay luxury tax to the state government, yet they were being branded as violators of norms, he said. The MC acted against these hotels after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took a serious note of the matter while deciding on a PIL filed by Sarbjit Singh in 2010. Interestingly, while the MC has issued notice for revocation of trade licences to six hotels, no action has been taken against 18 other hotels, which were served notice by the Municipal Town Planning Department in October last year. The Association members demanded that the licences of these six hotels be restored, failing which they warned that all hotels in the city will shut shop for an indefinite period. Municipal Commissioner Dharampal Gupta said these 18 hotels didn’t have trade licences. Asked did it mean they will not face action, he said they would be initiating action against them as well soon.
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Ludhiana continues to reel under power crisis
Ludhiana, May 26 The power supply in nearly the entire city, which went off at around 3 pm yesterday when the sub-station was engulfed in a blaze, was partially restored after more than six hours and that too with shifting of the load to Dhandari and Humbran sub-stations for brief
durations. KL Sharma, chief engineer, Central Zone, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited
(PSPCL), said power supply was restored in a phased manner to avoid overloading of sub-stations that were operational. Power supply to some residential localities was first restored by shifting the load on Dhandari sub-station and thereafter some feeders were linked to 220 KV Humbran sub-station. Residents of the city, most of them were unaware of the gravity of the situation, were however, angry over the erratic power supply almost during the entire week beginning from Monday when there was a maintenance shutdown for eight hours and a 100-MVA transformer at Lalton Kalan had burnt down due to overloading. To make the matters worse, a new 100-MVA transformer installed at the 220-KV Ferozepur Road sub-station had developed a snag, which would take another couple of days to rectify. There was no power supply for almost the entire Friday night and the power was again shut down in the morning due to which people had to go without water supply, complained several residents from
Dugri, Model Town and Haibowal areas.
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Customs dept, BSF spar over heroin seizure
Amritsar, May 26 VK Khosla, assistant commissioner, Customs, said the three-member Pakistani crew, including train driver Mohammad Afzal and assistant drivers Javed Iqbal and Kamran Ashraf, were allowed to go back after questioning around 12.45 am. Along with three Pakistani crew members, an Indian customs official was also present in the train. A customs official boards the train at the border fence gate (from where the train enters into Indian territory). Khosla says police investigation states that it is not possible to throw a bag at the spot from where it was recovered with the train moving at a speed of 30 km/hour. “The window from where the bag is said to be thrown is small and it is doubtful to throw a bag containing 10-kg heroin and over 15 lakh in fake currency to such a long distance,” said
Khosla.
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Cooperation dept to start recruitment
Chandigarh, May 26 A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a meeting with officers of the Cooperation Department and different cooperative institutions.
— TNS
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Now, Duronto to stop at Jalandhar, Ludhiana
Ferozepur, May 26 From the very beginning, the response to this train had not been on the right track as it had failed to send the cash registers ringing due to its low occupancy, following which the railways had been contemplating various options to make the train a success. Moreover, the residents of both Jalandhar and Ludhiana, especially government employees who have to commute to Chandigarh daily, had been clamouring for a stoppage at both these places. — OC
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Sacha Saudha chief files plea for passport
Bathinda, May 26 In the plea, Dera chief’s counsel SK Garg stated that he had fixed an appointment with a doctor in Nepal for treatment from June 18-21. Considering the application, the CJM fixed the case for next hearing on June 1. He also asked the advocates of Sikhs, who had been contesting the case for getting the Dera chief penalised for “hurting” the religious sentiments, to come up with their submission on the issue on the same day. Meanwhile, in the second case, the proceedings of which were initiated on the Dera chief’s application of revision filed against the CJM court’s previous decision to summon him for appearing in person before the court, Additional Session Judge DS Johal, after finding the complainants namely Rajinder Singh Sidhu, Jaspal Singh Manjpur and Hardeep Singh present in the court, adjourned the case till August 4, fixing it for arguments.
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Punjabi University recruitment scam
Patiala, May 26 SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill said the police had also recovered Rs 2.5 lakh in cash and a Punto car (PB11AX 1571) from Kang during his arrest on May 24. He said the gang led by Kang used to dupe unemployed persons on the pretext of providing them jobs in Punjabi University and Irrigation Department. "This gang charged lakhs of rupees on the pretext of providing them regular jobs. After issuing fake appointment letters, they asked the victims to undergo training and even paid Rs 12,500 to clerks, Rs 10,000 to drivers and Rs 8,500 to peons as monthly allowance. They have duped more than 200 persons for the posts of around 69 clerks, 87 peons, six drivers, four commandos in Punjab Police and 9 beldars in the Irrigation Department," he added. The incident came to light when around 100 complainants met SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill on May 9 in this regard and narrated their stories. They alleged that they had paid Rs 3 to 5 lakh each for the posts of clerks and few others. They said they were called for an interview on university campus on Sunday and the accused even recorded their interviews. Then, Kang issued them appointment letters stating that they were supposed to undergo six months training before joining. Even after completing one-year training, they were not provided jobs and when they asked Kang, he simply refused and began to threaten them. They then met the SSP with their complaint.
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Suvidha centres were established by the previous SAD-BJP regime for effective delivery of services under the Right to Service Act.
Two months after the tax holiday ended in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab is now wooing the industry with new
vigour.
Teachers from 484 government-aided schools today went on a mass causal leave in support of their long-pending demands.
Gurdaspur, May 26
With the SAD-BJP government allegedly getting nomination papers in nine of the 13 wards arbitrarily rejected in Valtoha nagar
panchayat, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today said this amounted to "rape of democracy" and announced that the party would be moving the court on Monday.
Amritsar, May 26
In the alleged Punjabi University recruitment scam worth Rs 20 crore, the Patiala police has recovered cash and property documents worth Rs 51
lakh, including Rs 9.95 lakh in cash, registries of three plots, fake stamps, two computers, one Maruti car, fake appointment letters for the posts of clerks, drivers and peons in Punjabi University,
Patiala, and beldars in Punjab Irrigation Department from the house of Amarjeet Singh Kang, a dismissed Punjab Police constable from
Bahadurgarh, who is the mastermind of the scam.
