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Khanna Factory inferno
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After double blow, family cremates son
Capt not invited to Morcha protest
Govt to lodge criminal cases against illegal occupants of panchayat land
71 govt school buildings unsafe in Muktsar district
New VAT collection system to stay: Sukhbir
Navigation to go hi-tech for tourists visiting Amritsar
SAD likely to change Ludhiana, Patiala Mayors
Shagun lures fraudsters
Update info on website, SGPC told
PUTA ELECTIONS
Staff crunch: PPSC to recruit 160 officers
Badal asks Pawar for Rs5,122 crore relief
Wild animals damage crops but govt offers little help
3 college students held for extortion
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Khanna Factory inferno
Ludhiana, September 14 The callous attitude of the department can be gauged from the fact that the plant was last visited in 2005 by the then Deputy Director (Factories). Further, the labour department has filed a report saying they have never received any information about the number of workers employed in the unit. Khanna SDM PS Sodhi said: “Deputy Director (Factories) Jatinder Singh Bhatti today visited the plant where the incident took place on Tuesday night. The factories department had last inspected the plant in 2005. Bhatti was provided with the site map to inspect if any violation had taken place in the unit. Further, the labour department today submitted its report stating that they did not have any record of employees working in the solvent plant.” Ram Chet Gaur, member of the Parvasi Bhalai Board, said besides the registration of a criminal case against the factory owner, action should be taken against the erring department employees who had failed to visit the plant during all these years. Gaur said: “We met Labour Minister Surjit Jiyani, who visited the plant last evening, and demanded action against the Deputy Director (Factories).” “The solvent plant owner was violating the rules with impunity. None of the employees working at the plant was on factory rolls. They were never given the provident fund or the ESI facility. The factory owner used to furnish the attendance record every month and destroy the old record,” said Ram Chet Gaur. SDM PS Sodhi said the factory owner had not yet shown the attendance record of the workers and claimed that all documents were destroyed in the inferno. The SDM has written to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB); Director (Boilers), Labour Department; District Food Supply Controller (DFSC); and the fire department seeking their support in the probe. Jatinder Singh Bhatti said: “The inspection of violations committed by the chemical factory does not fall within my purview. It is the job of the Deputy Director (Chemicals) to look into the violation.” Sources say the post of Deputy Director (Chemicals) has been lying vacant for over a year. Toll in blast incident rises to 8 Chandigarh: The toll in the Khanna blast incident has reached eight with two more victims, Gurbachan and Kanchan, who were under-treatment at the PGI here, succumbing to their burn injuries. The condition of two more workers, Govind and Akram, was stated to be critical. — TNS Allegation... The solvent plant owner was violating the rules with impunity. None of the employees working at the plant was on factory rolls….. The factory owner used to furnish the attendance record every month and destroy the old record Rebuttal... The inspection of violations committed by the chemical factory does not fall within my purview. It is the job of the Deputy Director (Chemicals) to look into the violations
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After double blow, family cremates son
Khanna, September 14 While Bhaghi Rath, who was standing near the hexane gas chamber, died in an explosion, his son Umesh sustained serious burn injuries as he rushed towards the gas chamber to save his father. Umesh, who was undergoing treatment at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, also succumbed to his injuries yesterday. As the family was busy performing Umesh’s last rites, his father’s charred body was lying unattended at the Civil Hospital in Khanna. Bhajan Singh, in-charge of the mortuary, said: “Bhaghi Rath’s body has been lying unattended for the past three days. I learned about his son’s death in Chandigarh. The deceased’s kin will visit the hospital tomorrow to claim the body.” Surinder Kumar, employed as a sewer man in the Khanna municipal council, was present at the scene when a massive explosion ripped through the premises of the plant. “At the time of the explosion, Umesh was handling rice bran, while his father along with Davinder, the plant operator, was trying to stop the leak of hexane gas from a chamber. A ball of fire destroyed everything. Umesh rushed towards the oil chamber and was engulfed by fire. He died while rescuing his father,” said Surinder Kumar.
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Capt not invited to Morcha protest
Chandigarh, September 14 However, the Morcha has asked him to call a meeting of Opposition parties to build a consensus on key issues. Capt Amarinder had earlier invited the Morcha to Congress dharnas against the fresh taxes in the state. Morcha leader Manpreet Badal, People’s Party of Punjab president, today said the dharna on September 21 would be a purely Sanjha Morcha show. Thanking Amarinder for his “positive approach”, he asked him to call an all-party meeting at the earliest to build a consensus among Opposition parties on key issues. He said besides taxes, the Morcha wanted to discuss civil liberties and the financial crisis in the state. Earlier in the day, headed by Manpreet, a Morcha delegation submitted a memorandum to Governor Shivraj Patil seeking that the recent taxes be revoked by September 21 failing which the Morcha activists would court arrest. Manpreet said the new taxes would not help Punjab as these would not raise even one-tenth of the Rs 9,000 crore needed to put the state back on track.
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Govt to lodge criminal cases against illegal occupants of panchayat land
Chandigarh, September 14 In all, 27,000 acres of panchayat land was under litigation either due to illegal occupancy or some other reasons. A majority of such cases had been reported in villages situated on the periphery of towns or cities where the land cost was high. In Mohali district, where the land prices had skyrocketed in recent years due to its proximity to the state capital Chandigarh, there were 413 pending cases. Director (Rural Development and Panchayats) Balwinder Singh Multani said, "We have already cleared encroachment from 719 acres of land in Patiala district. A similar action is being planned in other districts of the state in coordination with the deputy commissioners and the district police chiefs concerned." The department has warned its officials that action will be taken against them as well in case their connivance was established in any such case. They had also been told that action will be taken against them under the service rules in case they failed to act against illegal occupants. The offenders will be booked under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act 1961. The law authorises department officials posted at the district headquarters to file a case. Multani said it had come to their notice that at some places, panchayats were not acting against those occupying village land illegally. "Officials have been told to deal with such cases on a priority," he said. During the current financial year, Rs 219.17 crore had been gathered as revenue from the auction process held for renting out 1.40 lakh acres of panchayat land. The figure stood at Rs 208 crore during the 2011-12 financial year. Legal tangle
Revenue source
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71 govt school buildings unsafe in Muktsar district
Muktsar, September 14 So much so that of the 548 government schools in the district, the buildings of 71 have been declared unsafe. These schools have damaged walls with plaster peeling off the roof, broken doors and electricity wires hanging precariously. Such a condition of schools in the VVIP district also negates the state government’s claims of giving priority to the education sector. Most of these schools were reportedly established decades ago when locals had collected funds to construct buildings or the land was either donated by individuals or by village panchayats. Sources said though there was a proposal for the construction of new school buildings, it was hanging fire allegedly due to delay at the bureaucratic level. The government middle school at Middukhera village in Lambi Assembly constituency figures at the top of the list of unsafe buildings. Certain portions of the building have collapsed while cracks are visible in almost every wall. An official in the Education Department also accepted that the condition of the school building was poor: “Though there is a plan to renovate the building, some glitches have been hindering the process.” District Education Officer Gurinderpal Kaur said, “We have informed the higher authorities about the unsafe structures of schools in the district. These buildings require immediate repair or need to be reconstructed. The final decision, however, will be taken by a committee of experts.” She said most of the villages in the district were affected by water-logging, which was also the main reason behind the dilapidated condition of school buildings.
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New VAT collection system to stay: Sukhbir
Chandigarh, September 14 “We are putting systems in place to bring in transparency in tax collections. The need for introducing a more transparent system to check intra-state sale of goods was felt after it was discovered that just 625 VAT dealers in the state were contributing to almost 90 per cent of the total VAT collections. The rest are either not paying VAT or hiding the total sales to avoid paying the tax,” he said in an interview with The Tribune. The data collected by the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department suggested that of the total 2,21,929 VAT dealers registered with the department, 1,24,908 did not pay the tax, while 75,000 dealers contributed over Rs 100 crore towards the total collections. The remaining 625 dealers were the real contributors, as they added Rs 12,260 crore to the total VAT collections of the state last year. “People have congratulated me for introducing e-TRIP. With the state government focusing on increasing its revenue generation, mainly by plugging the loopholes, transparent policies like e-TRIP, which will force businessmen to log in their sales, will help us increase the VAT collections by at least 20 per cent,” said Sukhbir, adding that many such initiatives were being finalised to check tax evasion. Traders have been protesting against e-TRIP saying it will increase their paperwork and cause unnecessary harassment at the hands of the sales tax department. The industry is also opposed to the move because of fear of revealing their user names and passwords given to them for e-filing to data entry operators. They apprehend that fake entries can be made under their names. About e-TRIP
The system necessitates traders, making sales of Rs 3 lakh or above in a single transaction, to furnish information regarding intra-state movement of goods (within Punjab) on the website of the Excise and Taxation Department. In case of iron and steel, information has to be furnished for transportation of goods having a value of Rs 2 lakh or above. Under the new rules, all sellers whose goods fall within the prescribed valuation limit have to submitted information on “e-TRIP”, which is a virtual Information Collection Centre, for transportation within Punjab.
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Navigation to go hi-tech for tourists visiting Amritsar
Amritsar, September 14 Addressing a press conference here, Phillaur said the GIS mapping would provide quick access to information regarding hotels, guest houses, taxi service, tourist spots, religious places, medical services, markets, etc. “Once the GIS mapping is completed, tourists will be able to find out their location on the mobile, besides exploring the shortest route to their next destination.” He said the tourism department website would provide detailed maps of the city. A special heritage and tourism cell had been created in the Amritsar municipal corporation to promote tourism, he added. The tourism department would construct a car parking facility and an open-air theatre near the Attari border to facilitate the tourists visiting the area for the retreat ceremony every evening. He said a laser show would soon be part of the itinerary and LED screens would be put up after seeking approval from the BSF. The screens will help tourists enjoy the retreat ceremony from a distance. On tourism projects, Phillaur said the historic Gobindgarh Fort would be opened to tourists in March 2013. They would be treated to a light and sound show.
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SAD likely to change Ludhiana, Patiala Mayors
Chandigarh, September 12 The mayoral elections, which are basically decided by nomination by the party high command, will be held for the Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana municipal corporations on September 17, 19, 20 and 21, respectively. Under an arrangement with its coalition partner, the SAD will field its candidates for the top post in Patiala and Ludhiana. The BJP will do the same in Amritsar and Jalandhar. Sources said the toss-up in Patiala is likely to be between three-time councillor Jaspal Singh Pardhan and youth leader Amarinder Bajaj. While Pardhan is supported by Samana legislator Surjit Singh Rakhra, Bajaj is the son of former Improvement Trust Chairman Inder Mohan Bajaj. In Ludhiana, Badal loyalist Pal Singh Grewal is the frontrunner. If the party goes in for a Scheduled Caste candidate, then Paramjit Kaur Shivalik, wife of Gill legislator Darshan Singh Shivalik, could be in the reckoning. The sources said the party was thinking of changing both its incumbent Mayors in Patiala and Ludhiana, keeping in mind their performance in the assembly elections. There is a feeling that Ajitpal Singh Kohli does not enjoy the “right” image. Though Giaspura is a staunch loyalist of the Badal family, there is a feeling that development in Ludhiana could have been fast-tracked in a better manner. The sources said that the BJP’s three-time councillor, Bakshi Ram, had the edge over youth leader Rajesh Honey in Amritsar. Bakshi Ram has been a district (urban) president and also Chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust. In Jalandhar, there is a direct contest between Sunil Jyoti and Ravi Mahendru. Sources said Jyoti enjoyed the patronage of both legislator KD Bhandari and former Mayor Rakesh Rathore. Mahendru is MLA Manoranjan Kalia’s man. Both the parties today announced observers for the mayoral elections. Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD president, appointed Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka as observer for Patiala, former Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan for Jalandhar and Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon for Ludhiana. Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia and MP Rattan Singh Ajnala will be observers for Amritsar. State BJP president Ashwani Kumar has appointed Local Bodies Minister Bhagat Chunni Lal and Kamal Sharma as observers for Amritsar, Industry Minister Anil Joshi and Manjit Singh Rai for Amritsar, Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal and Vinod Sharma for Ludhiana and Forest minister Surjit Kumar Jyani and Sandeep Rinwa for
Patiala.
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Shagun lures fraudsters
Chandigarh, September 12 A senior official said no payment had been released to the bogus claimants. He said following the verification drive, the number of claimants under the shagun scheme had started to decline. For instance, the number of claimants was about 57,000 during the last fiscal year. However, the government had received applications from only 15,000 claimants till August this year (the first five months of the current fiscal year). “The total number of claims for the current fiscal is likely to be between 40,000 and 45,000”, the officer said. With money under the shagun scheme deposited directly in the claimant’s bank account, the chances of fraud had been minimised, he said. He said there were claimants who were found to be underage and some who could not be traced. Bogus Cases 484 Barnala dist 341 Muktsar dist 201 Jalandhar dist 188 Ferozepur dist 152 Gurdaspur dist 83 Tarn Taran dist
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Update info on website, SGPC told
Ludhiana, September 14 The SGPC has been asked to upload all information regarding its functioning and details of its income and expenditure on its official website. The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on March 28, 2011, had declared the SGPC a public authority under the RTI Act on an application filed by local resident Kuldeep Singh Khaira on April 27, 2011. The order passed by Satyananda Mishra, CIC, on September 6 said: “We find that in the case of the first appellant (Khaira), no effort was made to provide any information even after the CIC expressly directed the Central Public Information Officer to do so.” He observed that the CPIO concerned had rendered himself liable for imposition of penalty under subsection 1, Section 20. “We, therefore direct the CPIO concerned to appear before the commission on October 10.” The CIC has directed the CPIO to provide Khaira the information desired by him within 15 working days of receiving the order.
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PUTA ELECTIONS
Patiala, September 14 They sought a written statement from the authorities as to why they were not counting the votes. After almost one-and-a-half hours, the university registrar gave the court order to the teachers. The teachers have said that an action plan against the university’s decision would be announced on Monday. Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar from Punjabi University Teachers Coordination Committee (PUTCC) said the court orders were pretty clear. It indicated that the results should be sealed which clearly meant that the counting process had to be completed. He said not counting the votes was contempt of the court and that the university authorities were deliberately delaying the counting. Lashing out at the university authorities, presidential candidates Dr Inderjeet Singh and Dr Rajesh Sharma said, “The university never wanted these elections in the first place so now they are doing everything possible to halt the counting process.” University Registrar-cum-returning officer Dr AS Chawla when contacted in this regard said they had postponed the counting as certain legalities were involved in the process. “In any elections, one has to ensure that the identity of the voter is not disclosed. The court has ordered that the result of the election be kept in a sealed cover. “But while calculating the result, the identity of the petitioners would be disclosed. We will first seek clarification from the court in this regard and then we will do the counting,” said Dr Chawla. Acting on civil writ petition no 17104 of 2012 filed by the teachers of Guru Kashi College and TPD Malwa College, Rampura Phul, pleading for the voting rights in PUTA elections, Justice Mahesh Grover has ordered that the petitioners shall be permitted to participate in the elections provisionally. However, since the dispute is pending in court, the result of the election shall be kept in a sealed cover. In case the petitioners fail to establish their claim in the writ petition, their votes would be cancelled before the final count of the votes is done.
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Staff crunch: PPSC to recruit 160 officers
Patiala, September 14 The government needs to recruit officers in the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) Punjab Police Services (PPS) and Excise and Taxation Office (ETO) among others. Out of the 160 officers that would be recruited, there would be 30 PCS officers, 20 DSPs, 30 ETOs, 25 Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Officers, 28 Block Development and Panchayat Officers, 11 Assistant Registrars of Cooperative Societies and seven Employment Generation and Training Officers. Sources said departments that were falling short of staff had already sent notifications to the PPSC office, thus, clearing the deck for PPSC to start the recruitment process. The state government had announced a one-year-extension to its retiring employees to ensure that it does not get short of staff. PPSC has been in the thick of controversies in the past, with many candidates challenging the recruitment process. PPSC started recruiting in December 2009, nine years after the last direct recruitment of PCS officers in 2001. In June, 2012, the result for PCS officers was announced after a delay of over seven months. More than 120 posts of PCS officers are lying vacant in Punjab. “We have received formal orders and all the information would be available on our website on Saturday. All the 160 posts would be advertised and candidates can download the forms from the official website,” said secretary PPSC, APS Virk. Sources said the last date for downloading the form from the website would be October 8, 2012.
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Badal asks Pawar for Rs5,122 crore relief
Chandigarh, September 14 Badal said Punjab had always been in the forefront for ensuring food security of the nation. Our state had been contributing about 40-50% of wheat and 30-35% of rice to the Central Pool for the last three decades. However, presently the state’s farmers had faced a drought-like situation. Therefore, state and its farmers deserved a Comprehensive Relief Package. The Chief Minister also said the recent hike in the prices of diesel by Rs 5 per litre had added to the woes of farmers. Increasing prices of agricultural inputs and non remunerative MSP had rendered agriculture a non-profitable profession.
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Wild animals damage crops but govt offers little help
Patiala, September 14 Due to the Assembly elections early this year, the animals could not be culled for the first three months. Since the animals have begun to get out of control, farmers have sought the help of the Wildlife Department. Monkeys, blue bulls and deer are some of the animals that have been damaging the crops. Farmers, whose land is near protected area, are continuously troubled by wild animals. Those who complain of attacks are issued special permission to hunt after getting a resolution passed by village panchayats. “In January, February and March, we had to deposit our firearms following instructions from the election commission due to the Vidhan Sabha elections in Punjab. This was a critical time for hunting,” said Patiala based hunter Balraj Singh Ghumman. Ghumman has received dozens of requests from farmers across the state to do the culling for them. Recently, hundreds of farmers from the nearby town of Nabha had held a dharna in Patiala demanding government intervention to help them save their crops from the wild animals. “We cannot work in the fields for the whole day and then stay awake the whole night to protect our crops,” rued one of the farmers. Farmers alleged that once their crop was destroyed by wild animals, getting compensation was next to impossible from the government. Dhirendra Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab, admitted that the attacks on farmers’ crops were increasing but said the department could not do much.
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3 college students held for extortion
Fazilka, September 14 Fazilka SSP Amar Singh Chahal, while briefing mediapersons this evening, said a gang of four students of the local MR Government College had demanded Rs 50 lakh from a local laboratory owner, Deepak Kukkar, threatening to kill his son Shivam (21), a student of BSc (agriculture) in Sher-e-Kashmir University, Jammu. Atul Goswami, Gobind Yadav, Karan Sharma and Akash Datta, all students of arts, made calls on Deepak Kukkar’s cell phone from a SIM acquired on fake ID and demanded Rs 50 lakh. One of the accused, Atul Goswami, whose father is a driver with a private educational institute, was known to the Kukkar family. Atul and his accomplices hatched a conspiracy to extort money from Kukkar. They made repeated calls over a period of 10 days, prompting Kukkar to get his son back to Fazilka. Thereafter, Kukkar approached the police. Kukkar struck a deal with the extortionists and offered to pay Rs 2 lakh. The SSP constituted a team led by SP (D) Balbir Singh, DSP SS Brar and SHO city Sukhdev Singh. The team arrested Atul Goswami, alias Bawa, Gobind Yadav, alias Sheru, and Karan Sharma near Ghallu village on the Fazilka-Abohar road while accepting the money from Kukkar. The fourth accomplice, Akash Datta, fled the scene.
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Chandigarh, September 14
Muktsar, September 14
