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Fresh taxes make life harder
Thieves target transformers, 9,000 gone in two years
Poor Quality Coal at Thermal Plants |
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Teachers absent for years to be sacked
Cops claim clues on jailbreak bid
Development comes to a halt in Ferozepur dist
Enrol migrant workers as voters: CEO
Service record of employees to be reviewed
Punjab Cabinet to meet on Sept 3
Fresh
taxes in state
Illegal
arms trade
Pathankot MC Commissioner held for bribe
Roads to UT to be
four-laned
Notice to govt on retaining
tainted Vigilance officials
Inter-state gang of drug peddlers busted
Woman held with 5 kg poppy husk
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Fresh taxes make life harder
Chandigarh, August 30 Tax to the GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) ratio in the state was too less (almost 7 per cent) and immediate measures were required to check the state’s fast-depleting resources. But fresh taxes have been imposed at a time when the trade and industry is going through a recessionary phase. The 0.5 per cent hike in the VAT rate, imposition of processing charges on VAT and the 1 per cent social infrastructure cess on the registration of land and other property deeds is certain to put a huge burden on the common man. With the government increasing the VAT rate by 0.5 per cent, petrol and diesel, besides 170 other items, will become expensive. Petrol will become dearer by 42 paise per litre and diesel by 30 paise per litre. With the hike in VAT from 27.5 per cent to 28 per cent, petrol prices in the state will rise from Rs 74.23 to Rs 74.65 per litre. Diesel prices will increase from Rs 40.19 to Rs 40.49 per litre. Items like branded wheat flour, refined flour, desi ghee, vanaspati, dry fruit, handicrafts, hosiery items, garments, toys, tea leaves, footwear, medicines and CFL bulbs will also become dearer. Gold, silver and platinum jewellery will become more expensive with the VAT rate going up from 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent. With the state government imposing a processing fee of Rs 800 per annum on traders, they will have to cough up the sum as “service charges” to the Excise and Taxation Department. Small cars like Maruti-Alto or Tata Nano and even two-wheelers will cost more in the state following the government's decision to levy the motor vehicle tax (MVT) at a uniform rate of 6 per cent, abolishing the previous slab system. Till now, the Punjab Government was levying a 2 per cent MVT on cars valued at less than Rs 5 lakh, 4 per cent on cars in the Rs 5 lakh-Rs 10 lakh price range, 6 per cent on vehicles valued between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 20 lakh and 8 per cent on vehicles valued at more than Rs 20 lakh. A tax of 4 per cent was levied on two-wheelers as registeration charges. With a uniform rate of interest, those buying these small cars will have to pay an additional 4 per cent tax (from 2 per cent to 6 per cent) and those buying two-wheelers will have to pay an additional 2 per cent tax (from 4 per cent to 6 per cent). Officials in the Transport Department said since almost 60 per cent of vehicles registered were in the 2 per cent and 4 per cent slab (small and mid-size cars and two wheelers), the move would result in more revenue for the state. On the other hand, with the implementation of a uniform tax rate, the rich will benefit as they will now pay less tax on buying luxury and premium cars (their tax liability will come down from 8 per cent to 5 per cent). The 1 per cent social infrastructure cess will also have an effect on the already staggering real estate sector. Realtors in the region said the imposition of cess will have an adverse impact with buyers postponing their decision to buy property. If one is buying property worth Rs 25 lakh, instead of paying a registeration fee (at the rate of 5 per cent) of Rs 1.25 lakh, he or she will now have to pay Rs 1.50 lakh as registeration fee (5 per cent fee and a 1 per cent cess).
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Thieves target transformers, 9,000 gone in two years
Patiala, August 30 Concerned over the rising theft cases, PSPCL CMD KD Chaudhri recently met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini to apprise them of the matter. Sources said since transformers above 25 KVA were heavy, thieves were mainly stealing low-capacity transformers (6.3 KVA, 10 KVA, 16 KVA). Power corporation officials said thieves were targeting transformers since these contain a huge copper content. They made a quick buck by selling these to junk dealers, the officials said. Sources said 1 kg of copper was sold for Rs 300. The weight of low-capacity transformers varies from 115 kg to 189 kg with each costing between Rs 24,460 and Rs 33,555. "There is no specific input on whether any particular gang is involved in the theft of transformers. The small size of these transformers makes the job of thieves easier. We have taken serious note of the matter. The Chief Minister and the DGP have assured us that immediate steps would be taken to check the meance," said Chaudhri. The PSPCL authorities confirmed that the maximum number of transformers were stolen from Kapurthala, Sangrur and Tarn Taran. The officials said an increased vigil by the police would help bring down the number of thefts. They said there were a considerable number of old transformers which had not been welded to the iron frames fixed on concrete poles. "Once the paddy season is over, all such transformers would also be welded with iron frames to prevent theft cases," they add.
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Poor Quality Coal at Thermal Plants
Bathinda, August 30 PSPCL seems to have swept the scandal under the carpet as no responsibility for past wrongdoings has been fixed in the times when Coalgate has hit the nation. Since long, coal supplier Panem has been providing sub-standard coal to thermal plants. The whistle on this was blown by the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP) Lehra Mohabbat. The thermal plant authorities conducted tests wherein the coal supplied to them was detected to be sub-standard. The move did not go down well with the coal provider as it stopped providing coal to the plant after August 6. It was only after The Tribune reported this arm-twisting on August 13 that the coal supply was restored on August 14. PSPCL had formed a committee comprising OSD, coal management, SK Puri; chief engineer, Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, Bathinda, HP Singh; chief engineer, GHTP, Lehra Mohabbat, and chief engineer, Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant, Ropar, K Lal. In its report submitted to PSPCL, the committee has recommended inter-thermal plant transfers of chief chemists (in-charge of the coal-testing wing) and ensuring uniformity in testing of coal at all the three thermal plants. Though the committee has laid emphasis on directing Panem to agree to work on joint sampling and analysis at the unloading end in thermal plants, it is silent on the recovery of huge losses incurred in the past. “The report is silent on the company’s role. How can the chemical wing alone be held responsible for the wrongdoings? A high-level probe should be marked,” said one of the chemical wing employees at the Bathinda thermal plant. Sources at PSPCL said that coal testing conducted at Ropar plant after August 15 has thrown up some surprises. F-grade coal was detected at the plant for the first time. Of the 13 rakes of coal tested from August 27 to August 29, one was found to be of D grade, 10 of E grade and two of F grade.
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In debt trap, farmers forced to sell their tractors, equipment
Gurdaspur, August 30 Farmers admit they visit Moga and Talwandi Sabo tractors mandis to mortgage their vehicles to arrange money for wedding or education of their children, construction of house etc. Amarbir Singh Gill, an agriculturist, said: "These tractor markets have become a case study for the dying farm culture in this once prosperous agrarian state". Experts say high costs of farm inputs and "unfriendly" government polices are the main factors that drive farmers to penury. "The successive state governments have not done anything to provide us adequate electricity. We have to buy diesel to run tractors, submersible motors, harvesting machines etc. In the last two years, prices of inputs have increased manifold. I have sold more than half of my four acres of land and now I have to dispose of my tractor," said Angrej Singh, a local farmer. Tejinder Singh, a marginal farmer, said: "I have no money for my daughter's wedding. I owe huge money to private financiers. I have decided to buy a tractor on loan and then sell it and get some cash". While he had to pay the bank instalments, he would get a lump sum amount, he said. But little does he realise that this act of his will lead him to debt trap. The new tractor will cost him Rs 5 lakh plus 9 per cent bank interest. He will get Rs 3.5 lakh for it, the market rate for hypothecated tractors. But for him, Tejwinder said he had no alternative. Gurmeet Dala, another farmer, said: "There are some farmers who go to Malwa region to sell their high-capacity tractors and buy smaller ones. This suggests that small farmers are incurring losses. The only ones who can afford the rising cost of agriculture are big farmers having more than 50 acres of land." Some farmers are even doing menial jobs like working as casual labourers to sustain their families, he added.
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Teachers absent for years to be sacked
Faridkot, August 30 After several notices and reminders to these teachers by the Education Department and the Rural Development and Panchayat Department failed to ensure their presence in schools, the government has now sent public notices, asking the teachers to explain their absence in the next 15 days or face the sack, said Balwinder Singh, Director, Rural Development. Most primary schools in rural areas are under this department. Among the nine absentee schoolteachers in Faridkot, three are women. Ranjit Kaur has been absent since October 17, 2006. Yadwinder Pal Kaur and her husband Kanwardeep Singh have been absent since May 2007. Though it is an open secret that these teachers are staying abroad, the Education Department did not terminate their services and make fresh recruitments. The losers were schoolchildren. More than 200 government schoolteachers in Punjab are abroad. Most of them had left on a six-month ‘no-pay’ leave.They have been extending their leave on one pretext or the other. “With these teachers refusing to accept the notices issued to them earlier, these have now been served through a public notice in newspapers,” said Balwinder Singh. Rules clearly state that these teachers need to report back to their schools before the completion of six months.
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Cops claim clues on jailbreak bid
Patiala, August 30 The role of certain police officers and jail employees in the conspiracy is under the scanner. Police IT experts along with officials of the intelligence wing are trying to trace the Internet Protocol (IP) address used by the inmates through their mobile phones. Call details have been traced to some European countries and some numbers in Asia. Sources confirmed that the cyber crime wing of the department had found that the SIM cards recovered from the prison had been used to explore the internet and make calls in India and abroad. “We will probe the IP addresses used and try to ascertain the email IDs used through the SIM cards,” the sources said. Further, the police is trying to locate the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) position of the recovered phones. At least 36 hardcore criminals are lodged in the Nabha Jail. Intelligence inputs had been suggesting since June that
these prisoners were planning to escape. “We have clues that they were planning a jailbreak. Whatever we have recovered so far seems just a tip of the iceberg”, said Patiala Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) LK Yadav. Senior police officers
are contemplating writing to the Jails Department to ensure more security checks for visitors and
hasten work on installing jammers.
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Development comes to a halt in Ferozepur dist
Ferozepur, August 30 The reason for this sorry state of affairs in the district is that Akali strongman and Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon, who represented the Ferozepur Cantonment constituency, was shifted by the party to the Maur constituency post delimitation. Though reluctant to do so, he had no option but to obey the party’s order. Incidentally, he has remained the chief of the district unit of the SAD for the past several years but has been unable to do justice to the post he holds following his victory from Maur. Senior leaders point out that this has come at the cost of the development of the district. During the previous tenure, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would invariably hold Sangat Darshan at least once a month. But, no such programme has been held ever since the SAD-BJP regime’s new tenure began, they pointed out. The party cadres are demoralised and clueless on whom to approach for their works, they added. Of the local SAD MLAs, Hari Singh and Joginder Singh Jindu, who represent the Zira and Ferozepur (Rural) constituency, respectively, the experienced Zira MLA has shown little interest in filling the void while the latter is a political greenhorn, the leaders revealed. On the other hand, the fortunes of the BJP are no better following the appointment of local leader Kamal Sharma, state general secretary of the party, as political adviser to the CM. Party cadres were hoping that he would do something for the development of the city or deal with the intra-party feuding but have been disappointed so far.
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Enrol migrant workers as voters: CEO
Bathinda, August 30 For enrolling young women voters, Sidhu directed the officials to take the help of anganwari kendras, colleges and ASHA workers. She said educational institutions, registration kendras, farad kendras, suvidha kendras, anganwari kendras and other such organisations would be provided with forms for enrolling new voters. Bathinda District election officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav, Mansa District Election Officer Amit Dhaka, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Mohammad Tayyab, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajeev Prashar and the Sub-Divisional Magistrates of Bathinda, Budhlada and Sardulgarh were among those who attended the meeting.
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e-Trip is here to stay
Chandigarh, August 30 Seeing the government's reluctance to withdraw the facility, the industry has called off its strike. However it’s representatives are expected to discuss the issue with the Deputy Chief Minister in a meeting next week. Under the new system, anyone making a sale of Rs 3 lakh or above in a single transaction would have to furnish the information regarding the intra-state movement of goods on the website of the Excise and Taxation department. In case of Iron and Steel, details of transactions of over 2 lakh were to be put on the website. Under the new rules, all sellers had to submit information on the movement of their goods within Punjab on e-Trip, which was a virtual information collection centre. However, ever since the service was launched on August 10 this year, the industry has been aggressively protesting against it. As a mark of protest, most of the induction furnaces across the state have remained closed for more than eight days now. They claimed this service would increase their paperwork; lead to unnecessary harassment by the sales tax department; and that suppliers would stop selling them scrap as they did not have the required infrastructure to avail the service. Many were also opposed to the move for fear of revealing their user names and passwords, used for e filing, to data entry operators who might make fake entries under their names. Officials in the Excise and Taxation department said that the idea behind introducing the e-Trip service was to bring in more transparency. "A lot of intra-state sale escapes the VAT net, and with this service, we will be able to plug in all the loopholes. There were 2, 20,000 VAT assessees in the state, and most of them were happy with the launch of this service. It's mainly the iron and steel industry that had a problem with the e-Trip. Our total VAT collection from this sector was around Rs 500 crore, and this will increase substantially, with the introduction of e-TRIP service," he said. The state government has a target to increase its VAT collection from Rs 12,260 crore last year to Rs 14,200 crore in the current fiscal. Other than increasing the VAT rate and roping in more VAT assessees, the excise department had introduced this electronic intimation of movement of goods within the state, to plug any leakages in the VAT collections.
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Child found abandoned near Sirhind rly station
Fatehgarh Sahib, August 30 The authorities suspected that the boy belonged to a migrant family and had started searching for the baby's parents. Councillor Kuldeep Kaur and social activist Gurpreet Singh Lalli heard the baby's cries when they were on their morning walk and found the boy near the pond. Thereafter they informed the Sirhind police. Local MLA Kuljeet Singh Nagra arrived at the site along with SHO Dharam Pal. Lalli took the child to a hospital for check up. Nagra said they first suspected that the boy might have fallen out of a train but soon debunked the theory as the boy did not suffer from any injuries. They informed the Deputy Commissioner who directed officials to spread the word about the abandoned baby in the town. Nagra said the boy was healthy. Confirming the same, the Deputy Commissioner said that District Programme Officer, Neeta Gupta had been assigned the task of taking care of the boy till his legitimate parents were found. He said the boy had been sent to a hospital in Mohali for medical check-up. In case they failed to find the child's parents, he would be sent to Bal Bhawan at Patiala or at
Ludhiana, he added.
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Service record of employees to be reviewed
Chandigarh, August 30 An official spokesman said to review the service record of Punjab Civil Service Officers, a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary comprising two Financial Commissioners /Principal Secretaries, the Principal Secretary of Welfare SCs/BCs as members and the Secretary, Personnel, had been constituted. Similarly, for the Punjab Police Service Officers (PPS), a committee under the Chief Secretary had been constituted. — TNS
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Punjab Cabinet to meet on Sept 3
Chandigarh, August 30 A delegation of shopkeepers had recently met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Patiala and brought to his notice certain problems being faced by them. Issues related to the Patiala shopkeepers, who had gone on strike some days ago, would also be discussed at the meeting, sources said.
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Fresh
taxes in state
Abohar, August 30 CLP leader Sunil Jakhar urged the SAD-BJP government to issue a white paper on the economy on the floor of the House. "Imposing gargantuan taxes on public in closed-door cabinet meetings is not only undemocratic but a dangerous trend being set by the Akali-BJP government. Punjab Congress deplores this undemocratic practice adopted by the government as it belittles the importance of the elected state assembly," he observed. He said property tax is an ever increasing burden on the people as it will increase with the increase in property rates on an annual basis. Jakhar felt that the optional re-appointment was okayed by the cabinet as the government does not have the funds to settle their retirement dues. More than 35,000 employees are about to retire this year. Jakhar also slammed the state government for its "irrational and non-productive" sports policy. He said Punjab drew a blank in the London Olympics while its neighbour (Haryana) topped the medal tally. Few sportspersons from Punjab could make it to the Olympic contingent. Speaking at the closing function of the 5th National Tchoukball Championship in his native village Maujgarh, he said government’s claims over promoting sports in the state were hollow. The government had not framed the policy sincerely to promote either agriculture or sports. He lauded the District Tchoukball Association for organising the national championship in Punjab, and that too in a remote
village. Punjab School Education Board vice-chairman Suresh Tandon assured that the board would make efforts to promote Tchoukball in schools to strengthen its foundation.
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Illegal
arms trade
Patiala, August 30 Police investigations have suggested that these dealers connived with administration officials and fudged official documents to sell illegal weapons smuggled from China via Pakistan. Sources said the probe into the case, registered last month at Rajpura, by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) had found enough clues that pointed towards the role of officials in the scam. "These dealers were helped by some staffers in the Deputy Commissioner (DC) offices, who prepared documents and gave registration numbers for the Chinese weapons which were later licensed to the buyers", said Patiala SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill. The Ferozepur DC office also played a major part in the illegal trade. "We have requested the DC Ferozepur to identify all such dealers and recommend their case to the home department for registration of a case," said a senior police officer. DC Ferozepur, Karuna Raju said he had asked his Additional Deputy Commissioner to probe the matter at the earliest. "Necessary instructions for strict possible action against all defaulters in my office and the weapon dealers would soon be recommended", he said. The case hogged the limelight after two persons were arrested for carrying 13 deadly attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
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Pathankot MC Commissioner held for bribe
Pathankot, August 30 Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)Surinder Kumar Kalia confirmed the arrest. But the Deputy Commissioner refused to comment. The officer was reportedly nabbed in the presence of Amritsar SSP (Vigilance) Upinderjit Singh Ghuman and DSP Subash Sharma. A senior officer said JP Singh was taken to a restaurant at Madhopur, near Pathankot, for questioning and from there to
Amritsar.
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Roads to UT to be
four-laned
Bathinda, August 30 Dhillon said that work on four-laning of the Bathinda-Chandigarh highway would be stepped up as acquisition of land and clearances from the Union Ministry of Environment had consumed a lot of time. He said that the highway between Chandigarh and Anandpur Sahib was being widened. A highway was also being built between Amritsar and Sriganganagar in Rajasthan. Several steps were being taken to decongest the existing roads. Under that process, inspection paths along various canals would be developed as metalled roads for rural traffic. Dhillon said that he has directed engineers to plug all potholes on the state and national highways within a timeframe that would be fixed in the next few days. Roundabouts and dividers would be beautified. He said that Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had plans to make the state surplus in electricity.
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Notice to govt on retaining
tainted Vigilance officials
Chandigarh, August 30 On an application filed by advocate HC
Arora, the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice RP Nagrath today issued notice for September 4 to the State of Punjab and the Chief Director of the Vigilance Bureau. The applicant pleaded that the state government be directed to consider the feasibility of framing a policy of not re-employing or retaining in the Vigilance Bureau persons who have been indicted by courts or are facing criminal
cases. Surinder Pal Singh retired on October 30, 2009. Despite directions issued by the court of Mohali special judge on October 1, 2010, for prosecuting Surinder Pal Singh, he was re-employed as OSD in the Vigilance Bureau. His tenure was extended to October 31, 2012. He was again indicted by the same court in former Cabinet minister Tota Singh’s case vide order dated May 5. The court had observed that “either he is too naďve or he has conducted tainted investigation with malafide intentions.” An FIR was also registered recently against Surinder Pal Singh under Section 420 and 120-B IPC in connection with the implication of patwari Mohan Singh in a corruption case. Freedom fighters The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Union of India to show a gesture of goodwill towards freedom fighters by giving travel concession on a par with widows of war heroes.
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Inter-state gang of drug peddlers busted
Moga, August 30 Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Surjit Singh Grewal said the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Nihalsinghwala, Jaswinder Singh Gharu, and in charge of the traffic wing Inspector Jaspal Singh, raided a house taken on rent by Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha at Talwandi Bhangerian village and recovered 184 bags of poppy husk. A decoy was sent to the house. He struck a deal with one of the peddlers, giving him Rs 50,000 in advance. When the contraband was being handed over to the decoy, the latter gave a signal to a police party waiting outside that raided the house and recovered 184 bags of poppy husk.
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Woman held with 5 kg poppy husk
Bathinda, August 30 Investigating officer in the case, Narinder Kumar said Manjeet Kaur is married and has two young children. She is hooked to poppy husk and had been smuggling the drug for the last many years. Manjeet Kaur has been caught several times and sent to jail but managed to come out on bail. Cases against her were registered at various police stations.
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“There is no specific input on whether any particular gang is involved. We have taken serious note of the matter. The Chief Minister and the DGP have assured us that immediate steps would be taken to check the
meance”