B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Millers to import cotton from Pak
Faridkot, August 7
Due to the late arrival of cotton this season, many textile millers in north India have been evincing keen interest in importing cotton from Pakistan. 

Nestle, Moga local body lock horns over octroi refund
Moga, August 7
Nestle, a Swiss multinational company, is at loggerheads with the Municipal Corporation of Moga (MC) over the refund of octroi, which according to the company was illegally charged from it by the local body for many years. 

Cong councillors want MC chief to go
Abohar, August 7
Twelve Congress councillors today formally moved an application under Section 22 of the Punjab Municipal Act before the Fazilka Deputy Commissioner seeking removal of the president of the local Municipal Council (MC). Notably, the MC has a total strength of 31 councillors.

Environment fest aims at raising green cover in Fazilka
Fazilka, August 7
The third annual environment festival, Anand Utsav, being celebrated here aims at planting at least 10,000 saplings. The festivity began on August 2 with a plantation drive and would continue till August 13. During the period, free saplings would be provided at people's doorsteps.

SAD sarpanch caught stealing canal water
Muktsar, August 7
The sarpanch of Sangu Dhaun village having allegiance to the SAD (B) has been caught stealing water from the Barkandi minor by the residents of the village. Villagers said it was the fourth time in the past two months when Sukhmandar Singh, the accused, has been nabbed while drawing water.

Woman burnt alive for dowry
Moga, August 7
A married woman was allegedly burnt to death by her husband and in-laws at Dhudike in Moga district on Monday night. The shocking incident occurred in a village from where the movement for social reforms was spearheaded by the great freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai in the early 20th century.

Millers to import cotton from Pak
Late arrival of yield in India, lower rate in Pak prompt millers to import
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, August 7
Due to the late arrival of cotton this season, many textile millers in north India have been evincing keen interest in importing cotton from Pakistan. These millers have already finalised the agreement for the import of nearly 3000 tonne of lint cotton in the last six days after the Trade Development Authority Pakistan (TDAP) and the State Bank of Pakistan agreed on July 31 to start the registration of cotton export contracts from Pakistan for the current fiscal year.

The shipment of this cotton from Pakistan is expected in the first week of September.

Dhiren Sheth, president, Cotton Association of India, said due to a deficient monsoon and the late sowing and arrival of cotton crop in India this season, many textile millers were inclined to import cotton from Pakistan where arrival of cotton was a month in advance.

Besides the late arrival of cotton in India, the other major inducement for the textile millers for importing from Pakistan is the comparatively low rate of lint cotton there.

While the lint cotton is available at Rs 101 per kg in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, the same variety of cotton from Pakistan costs the millers Rs 96 per kg, said Subash Garg, proprietor of RK and Sons, a Fatehabad-based importer and exporter of cotton, cement and coal from Pakistan.

Though Pakistani lint cotton contains about one per cent trash material due to its poor cleaning and processing, still its import saves the textile millers about Rs 4 per kg, said Dhiren Sheth.

With the sudden increase in the registration of cotton export agreements between the textile millers in Punjab (India) and Pakistan, the shipment of cotton would start in the coming days, said Dalip Singh, a clearing and forwarding agent at the Wagah border in Amritsar.

Unmindful of the deficient monsoon, most textile millers in Punjab have had thin stock of cotton last season due to a fluctuation in the cotton prices. But now, with cotton price rising in the domestic market and low price of cotton in Pakistan, the millers want to recapture their business in yarn.

Interestingly, due to good cotton production in India, for the last four years, India was a major exporter of cotton to yarn and textile mills in Pakistan. But due to the deficient monsoon, it has been a reversal of roles this season.

Nestle, Moga local body lock horns over octroi refund
Kulwinder Sandhu/TNS

Moga, August 7
Nestle, a Swiss multinational company, is at loggerheads with the Municipal Corporation of Moga (MC) over the refund of octroi, which according to the company was illegally charged from it by the local body for many years. It amounts to `15 crore, as per the estimates, before the period 2006-07, after which octroi was abolished.

The company claims that besides having a manufacturing unit at Moga, it gets certain food articles manufactured by a third party on job work basis and the material received from the job worker was primarily designed for re-export outside the Moga town and partly outside the state. Thus, octroi was not applicable on it.

On the basis of the claim that the goods from job work were not brought for consumption or use within the municipal limits, Nestle moved an application before the local body for grant of re-export pass, which was declined and the company filed an appeal before the appellate authority.

The appeal was allowed. The respondent, MC, carried the matter in revision, and the revision authority remanded the matter back to the Collector. Again, the Collector allowed the claim and the MC filed a revision. The revision was allowed and the company moved a petition before the High Court (HC).

Gaurav Khanna, head, legal affairs, Nestle maintained that only sale within the municipal limits does not authorise the MC to charge octroi on goods.

Justice Ajay Tiwari of the HC recently ordered, “The MC is directed to take a reasoned decision within four months and make the necessary refund, if any, within a period of six months thereafter”.

Fearing monetary loss after the court verdict, the MC moved a revision petition before the HC claiming it was not possible to refund the amount because the ‘doctrine of unjust enrichment is a just and salutary doctrine’.

Executive officer of the MC, KS Brar, said, “No person can seek to collect the duty from his purchaser at one end and also collect the same duty from the state on the other, which will unjustly enrich the company. The doctrine of unjust enrichment is, however, inapplicable to the state as it represents the people of the country. No one can speak of the people being unjustly enriched.”

A division bench of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and Justice TPS Mann, while accepting the revision petition of the MC, has fixed September 4 as the next date of hearing in the case. 

Cong councillors want MC chief to go
Our Correspondent

Abohar, August 7
Twelve Congress councillors today formally moved an application under Section 22 of the Punjab Municipal Act before the Fazilka Deputy Commissioner seeking removal of the president of the local Municipal Council (MC). Notably, the MC has a total strength of 31 councillors.

In a press conference held here this afternoon, senior Congress councillor Vimal Thatai and other councillors said the elections to the MC were held in 2008 and Shiv Raj Goyal (BJP) was elected as its president. They alleged that Goyal failed in performing his statutory duties.

Under Section 25 of the Punjab Municipal Act, a meeting of the Council was required to be held once a month, but no meeting was called after April 26 this year, they said, adding that in such a situation, councillors intended to move a no-confidence motion against the MC president and sought his removal from the office.

The councillors also produced a copy of the letter sent to the MC president by the Executive Officer (EO) of the Council, vide serial number 3126, on July 26. In the letter, the EO had stated that the MC had not been able to pass its annual budget as no meeting had been convened after April 26. This, he said, paralysed the administrative transactions also. The EO urged the president to convene a meeting immediately but the latter did not respond to it.

The councillors regretted that residential areas in Abohar had been submerged in overflowing sewerage water for the past six months. The machines to drain sewerage water, acquired from Kotkapura and Bathinda, besides a dozen of manually-operated de-silting machines have not been supplied diesel by the MC.

Environment fest aims at raising green cover in Fazilka
Our Correspondent

Fazilka, August 7
The third annual environment festival, Anand Utsav, being celebrated here aims at planting at least 10,000 saplings. The festivity began on August 2 with a plantation drive and would continue till August 13. During the period, free saplings would be provided at people's doorsteps.

Official sources said Fazilka has a total urban area of about 10.4 sq km while its forest cover stands alarmingly low at less than 0.5 per cent.

The Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka (GWAF), a local NGO, initiated the drive to see a green Fazilka. Saplings are being provided free of cost at the door step of residents. A large number of saplings have been provided to the military station. Besides, saplings are also being distributed in schools.

"We are getting a large number of calls from the area residents asking for free saplings," said GWAF general secretary Navdeep Asija.

"In 2009, we had planted more than 1200 saplings during Anand Utsav. Of them, more than 600 had survived. During the second season, we planted more than 2,300 saplings in different parts of the city and nearly 1,600 of them survived. We don't aim at only planting more saplings but also to ensure that they grow," claimed Asija. 

SAD sarpanch caught stealing canal water
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, August 7
The sarpanch of Sangu Dhaun village having allegiance to the SAD (B) has been caught stealing water from the Barkandi minor by the residents of the village. Villagers said it was the fourth time in the past two months when Sukhmandar Singh, the accused, has been nabbed while drawing water.

It is learnt that a number of residents of Sangu Dhaun, Goniana, Ruharianwali and Barkandi villages today complained to the irrigation department officials that the Sarpanch was stealing water from the minor. Acting upon the complaint, the irrigation officials reached the spot and stopped the illegal act.

When contacted, SDO (Canals) Sarabjeet Singh said, "A legal action is being taken against the Sarpanch for committing water theft. Even we have blocked the illegal water supply to his fields."

He, however, said it was the second such incident reported to the department by the affected farmers.

Woman burnt alive for dowry
Tribune News Service

Moga, August 7
A married woman was allegedly burnt to death by her husband and in-laws at Dhudike in Moga district on Monday night. The shocking incident occurred in a village from where the movement for social reforms was spearheaded by the great freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai in the early 20th century.

As per the details available from the police, the woman, identified as Ranjit Kaur, daughter of Mukhtiar Singh, a resident of Akhara village of Jagraon sub-division in Ludhiana district, was married to Jasvir Singh, a resident of Dhudike village about four years back.

The father of the ill-fated woman, in a statement recorded before the police, has alleged that her in-laws were satisfied with the expenditure made on her marriage including the dowry items given to her.

For the last few months, her husband and in-laws were asking his daughter to bring money for a motorcycle, he alleged.

Since, the deceased knew the financial condition of her parents, she did not insist due to which she had to face the wrath of her in-laws. On Monday, her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law poured kerosene on her and set her afire following. She subsequently died of burn injuries.

The police registered a criminal case under section 304 of the IPC against her husband Jasvir Singh, father-in-law Ranjit Singh and mother-in-law Angrej Kaur at the Ajitwal police station and began investigations into the incident.