Amritsar, September 24
Unravelling a kidnapping drama, the city police today arrested three persons and lodged a fraud case against the complainants for misleading the police and cheating people on the pretext of sending them abroad.

Those arrested were identified as Baba Darshan Singh, his son Randeep Singh and a self-styled social worker Anokh Singh Bhatti of Indira Colony, Kot Khalsa, here.

Darshan Singh had lodged a complaint with the Chheharta police that his son Randeep Singh had been kidnapped by Shashi Kiran and Sushila Devi, kin of former BSF employees, following which the police registered a case under Sections 365, 120-B of the IPC against them on August 12.

During investigations, the Chheharta police located the mobile tower location of Randeep’s mobile in Ludhiana. A raid was immediately conducted at the residence of one Ram Piara, who turned out to be a relative of Darshan Singh’s family. He told the police that Randeep stayed with them for a few days on the pretext that they had a dispute with their neighbours. However, a few days before the raid, that is on August 25, Randeep left their place and he did not know about his present location.

Meanwhile, Darshan Singh approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court about the abduction for exerting pressure on the police department, said Sukhwinder Singh, investigating officer.

“The accused apparently got the wind of the police raid and their kidnapping drama, following which Randeep was shifted to some other relatives’ house at Jalandhar.

The police party then conducted a raid at Jalandhar,” he said.

Jatinder Singh, their relative at Jalandhar, narrated the entire story to the police while claiming that the accused had agreed to return the money to Shashi Kiran and Sushila Devi, besides withdrawing the case from the High Court.

The police immediately swung into action and arrested Darshan Singh from his residence. On his tip off, the police then arrested Anokh Singh and recovered Randeep Singh from his residence.

Shashi Kiran and Sushila Devi had approached the Police Commissioner while alleging that the three accused had taken Rs 7.60 lakh from them for sending their wards abroad. But they neither returned the money nor sent them abroad.

Harvinder Singh, ACP west, said the police had cancelled the kidnapping case and lodged another fraud case under Sections 417, 420, 422, 150-B and 182 of the IPC against the three accused.

The accused staged all abduction drama to avoid returning the money he said, adding that strict action would be taken against those who misled the police.

Amritsar, September 24
Even as the new Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora has yet to gear himself up for finding ways to address the issues the municipal complex (MC) has been grappling with, he has invited a controversy by opening a separate office at the historic Ram Bagh Panorama, in addition to the one located at the main Town Hall complex.

Taking a strong exception to it, a coterie of the alliance as well as opposition leaders had termed it a move to divide the city into two parts. They advocated that it was a deliberate attempt of the Mayor to give special attention to the residents of the Civil Lines area while paying negligible attention towards the grievance of those living in the Walled city area.

Even as a day after issuing contrary statements, the alliance leaders backtracked from the issue, apparently, after the intervention of the higher leadership of both sides, but the idea of putting up an office at Ram Bagh has still not gone down well with the Opposition leaders.

Congress’ Gurinder Rishi viewed that it would be cumbersome for the residents of the old walled city area to come all the way to Ram Bagh to tell their grievances to the Mayor.

“Rather, had it been at the Town Hall office, it would have been convenient even for the Mayor to ask for the officer concerned or any file pertaining to a case instantly. Now, when the Mayor would be operating from Ram Bagh, it would not only be inconvenient for the residents, but the MC officials, too, would have to do the futile exercise of arranging pertaining documents for him,” said Rishi.

Putting an end to these apprehensions, Mayor Arora said it was just a temporary arrangement made at the Ram Bagh complex, as he could not spare space for establishing a separate camp office at his place.

“Those councillors who opposed this move must be having their own personal reasons, otherwise this place has been chosen after giving it an ample thought. Still, it is purely a temporary arrangement. I am making additions to my house for accommodating visitors,” he said.

Mayor Arora also clarified that the significance and existence of the Town Hall office would remain as it was.

“At present, I have scheduled to be present in the Town Hall office from 3.30 to 5 pm daily. But before that, I would be attending to residents at Ram Bagh Panorama Office, which is a centrally located place and caters to at least 20 wards. Moreover, being located on a separate stretch, it can accommodate as many vehicles without posing an hindrance to the normal traffic flow,” he said. 

Amritsar, September 24
The reproach of the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the cleanliness system in the holy city does not seem to have moved the municipal corporation (MC) if its attitude towards revamping the MC sanitation wing is anything to go by.

The announcements made prior to the polls by the government in engaging extra hands in the cleanliness wing of the corporation too ended up as a political gimmick.

In May last, the authorities had announced to engage 346 safai karamcharis in the MC. Around 25,000 applications were received on this count, but except for holding one-month long interview process, nothing could be done. Huge bundles of applicants’ files have been gathering dust in the MC office for the past over five months.

The delay is taking a toll on the cleanliness in the holy city.

There were sanctioned posts of 1,735 Class IV employees in 1977, when the corporation came into being and the city was divided into 50 wards.

It has been learnt that since 1993, the recruitment process in the cleanliness wing has been stalled despite the fact that substantial number of safai karamcharis retired or expired in between their service span. There hasn’t been a single appointment against these vacant posts.

At present, for 65 wards, there are around 1200 safai karamcharis associated with the MC on a regular basis. This implied that there is at least a shortage of 500 safai karamcharis.

Under the Mohalla Sudhar head, out of a total of 1,176 sanctioned positions, only 708 could be engaged so far.

In totality, the MC is in dire need of over 1000 safai karamcharis to get things rolling as far as cleanliness of the city is concerned.

As a policy matter, a committee has to be constituted to scrutinise the fresh applicants or regularising the services of those who were engaged on a temporary basis.

Till date, this committee could not be formed for want of its approval in the house. Now that the new house has been formed, this issue should find priority on the MC’s agenda.

Surinder Tona, general secretary of the Municipal Corporation Workers Union, Amritsar said the process got delayed due to the sudden announcement of corporation elections and the promises of recruiting safai karamcharis appeared to be nothing but a "politically motivated move just to garner the votes.

Charan Das, president of the Punjab Municipal Workers Union, said, “Earlier there used to be five persons accompanying one garbage-lifting trolley, when the corporation came into being in 1976. Later, this counting declined, whereas the area expanded up to 65 wards. Now, we can spare just two for the same quantum of job. The quality of job can well be imagined from the prevailing scenario,” he said.

High on parties' agenda

Looking back, the appointment of safai karamcharis remained a hot topic in the political parties’ agenda during the Assembly elections and it was only in April last when the AMC had engaged 103 Class IV employees, which included safai karamcharis on compassionate grounds. They were the kin of those who expired while in service with the corporation. It was then that the doors for engaging another lot of 346 more hands were opened.

Agreement

A pact was reportedly signed between the ruling alliance and the safai karamcharis’ union prior to the assembly elections and subsequently the corporation elections to regularise the services of temporary safai karamcharis as well as engaging fresh hands. 

Amritsar, September 24
It’s quite often for an artist to experience something great and get his imagination stuck to it, to again bring it alive on his canvas. Artist Deepti Kanda knows about what we are talking. The Batala-based artist and professor at the RR Bawa DAV College for Girls has brought her first solo exhibition of paintings to Amritsar. The paintings share her experiences of nature’s nirvana, a holiday that inspired a work of art from her.

“I went to Gangtok two years back on a vacation and was mesmerised by the natural beauty. It was enchanting, an exotic appeal that I never could get out of my mind. The city’s colours, all in their raw form kept my imagination running wild. And so I came up with a collection of 25 paintings that reflect the same emotions for others to see,” shares the artist.

The painting exhibition that opened at KT Kala has works in water colours with nature as the central theme. It mostly has flowers and blooms in a colourful palate, giving the onlookers an experience of the natural beauty of Gangtok on canvas. Deepti hopes that her inspiration impresses the art lovers in the city and gets the message across.

A student of Punjabi University, Patiala, Deepti, has been pursuing art for several years now. But it’s the first time that she has held her solo show. “It took me some time to arrange my thoughts and put them down on the canvas. I hope my exhibition gets appreciated.”

Teaching art, Deepti believes in traditions. “You cannot define art or a fine artist, but you can definitely refine their skills and teach them to mould their imagination creatively. While teaching amateur and aspiring artists at my college, I make sure to tell them to let their imagination run free, as to be tamed is not in artist’s nature.”

On the occasion, a brochure having 12 photographs of the paintings displayed and some information about Deepti Kanda, too, was released. The exhibition will be on till September 29 and entry is free.

Amritsar, September 24
Advocating for multi-disciplinary approach, medical experts emphasised that an individual should know about his or her genomic history, before administering any kind of medication or drug. These views were expressed during the national seminar on "Genetics of Mendelian and complex diseases," held at Guru Nanak Dev (GND) University.

The seminar was organised by the Department of Human Genetics in association with the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi.

Prof Dr R.N.K. Bemezai, Vice-Chancellor of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu, stressed that not only the drug should be precise, but also its dosage should be equally accurate.

Dr Bemezai anticipated that by 2025 everyone could have his or her genome sequenced. "The complete details of structural genomics are important for diagnosis, drug combination and treatment of diseases. Here, even chemists can play a critical role," he said.

He said the circle might therefore move from the era of "disease-specific" compounds to the era of "disease and patient-specific" compounds in which drugs might be chosen on the basis of the phenotype and genotype of the diseased cell or tissue and the genome of the patient.

"Today's life style is responsible for various diseases like infections, diabetes and cancer," he viewed.

Earlier, the GND University Vice-Chancellor, Prof A.S. Brar, who presided over the seminar, said high quality of research in the science field and ultra sophisticated equipment were required to understand any phenomena at the molecular level.

Dr Jagmohan Singh from IMTECH, Chandigarh, Dr Reema Dada from AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Sanjeev Puri from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Dr Daljit Singh from Amritsar also presented their views.

Dr Vanita Kumar, Head of the Department, welcomed the chief guest and detailed about the seminar. Dr A.J.S. Bhawar, Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, proposed the vote of thanks.

Meanwhile, Prof. Brar also honoured Dr Bemezai with a memento on behalf of the university.

Amritsar, September 24
Many holy city residents seek high rate of tax for those who own more than one property, while demanding nominal or no tax at all on those who own single property.

Even as the Municipal Corporation (MC) initiated an onerous task of counting all houses in the MC limit to bring them under the newly introduced property tax, but many residents of the city decry the tax for its failing to distinguish between an owner of a residential unit and a proprietor of many houses. They demanded that property tax must be nominal for a person possessing a single property, while an owner of more than one house must pay more tax.

A resident of Rani Ka Bagh, Naresh Johar, said as these persons had procured more properties for commercial purpose, similar tax must be imposed on them.

He said there were nearly 2.35 lakh houses as per the 2010 Census, but not all of them were owned by equal number of people. He elaborated that there were many residents who owned more than one plots or houses. As an impact of urbanisation, the holy city was bursting at its seams and people with surplus money had invested heavily in the real estate, which contributed to the speculative hike in prices, he stated. While it denied an opportunity for the people from low income groups to own their dream houses, he said.

Citing the instance of nearly 720 flats for lower income groups raised at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar by the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), Johar said it was a fine example of denying the residential property to people in need as many of them had been procured by investors waiting the prices to appreciate.

He lambasted the government for its equal treatment for the people coming from diverse income groups. He said the tax would not make any difference to the lives of investors, while the people from middle and lower income groups would have to pay through their nose.

A real estate agent, Harpinder Singh Walia, appreciating the recommendation of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation that a person owning more than one house must be taxed and demanded that the same rule must be implemented in Punjab. He added that many unskilled people with surplus money had invested in plots and other kinds of property to sell tham after a period of time on profit.

He said these persons remained idle for a long period of time in search of good profit. He added that had they invested this amount in setting up an industry or a shop they would have given employment to many others, while keeping themselves occupied in some positive work.

The MC has divided the city in eight zones, which are being looked after by currently available six superintendents to count the houses and identify them by allotting numbers. The property tax would replace the house tax from the next financial year. Out of the 2.35 lakh houses, nearly 40,000 paid house tax to the tune of Rs 18 crore in the last fiscal. This year the MC has fixed the target at Rs 22 crore, while the same is expected to reach the magic figure of Rs 100 crore in the very first year of its implementation, ie fiscal year 2013-2014. Earlier, house tax used to be paid only by those who have rented out their premises.

The property tax has been evoked from the 93 B of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act-1976. As per the new format, all residential properties above 100 sq yard have to pay 1 per cent tax on the 5 per cent value of the total cost of the property. The total cost of property would be inferred by adding the cost of land as per the circle rate of the area and the value of constructed building over it. Proprietors of the rest of the properties would have to pay varied percentage on the 15 per cent value of the entire cost of property.

The tax will be paid by the property owners as per the pattern of the income tax returns and it is to be paid between April 1 to June 30 every year. Under-assessment of property and delay in submitting property return could attract financial penalty in shape of 25 per cent fine over and above the property tax, besides 15 per cent interest on the tax for the delayed period. The law also has a provision for imprisonment apart from financial penalty.

The MCs do not have power to alter the property tax and could review it only after a period of five years, that too after the approval of the state government.