The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Civic body's proposal to set up market hits a roadblock Human rights body opposes the move saying the site is of historical significance Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The proposal of the Municipal Corporation (MC) to raise 46 shop-cum-offices (SCOs) along the inner circular road from Hall Gate to Sikandari Gate, colloquially known as ‘faseel', has hit another roadblock. A city-based Human Rights Protection Council (HRPC) is up in arms against the move to auction the remains of a structure on the stretch, contending that the site is of historical significance. HRPC chairman Parveen Sehgal in a communiqué to Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal claimed that the decrepit structure was originally used as a prison during the British Raj. He stated that the antique structure and the faseel wall, said to have been set up during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was very difficult to be segregated as they had intertwined over a period of time. He stated the site should to be preserved instead of being demolished. Sehgal said the MC had established the Deen Dyal Upadhyay market a few metres away from the structure about a decade ago. He said most of the outlets in the market have remained closed all these years. Besides, he stated, the Pink Plaza market established by an Improvement Trust was also situated a few metres away from the structure. He urged the authorities to preserve the structure, which was indicative of measures taken by the then British government to suppress the feelings of locals to fight for their freedom. Some local residents have already been opposing the construction of the SCOs, apprehending that it could lead to further congestion in the area. A shopkeeper, Sarbjit Singh, said the inner circular road from Hall Gate to Sikandari Gate was already very congested and the proposed structure would add to residents' woes. He said the MC had twice called for bids, on February 19 and March 14, through various newspapers but had later cancelled them. Tenders were invited for cleaning up the debris at the site to pave way for the project over the 1,750-sq yard stretch but the process hit a roadblock after the court’s stay order. Even as the MC temporarily withdrew the move to avoid any legal hurdle, insiders said it was going to hold the auction soon as the earnings from the project would be to the tune of Rs 30 crore. "The stay order was valid till February 22 only. The MC had withdrawn the move but it is going to float fresh auction bids for the site soon," said a source. MC Commissioner Bhupinder Singh said he was not aware of the existence of a jail at the site. He said as per the MC records, a private carpet-weaving unit had been in existence from 1880 to 1946. He said the licence of the private mill was cancelled in 1946, following which the MC and the mill owner entered into a litigation for a long period of time, but the court eventually decided in the favour of the civic body.
	Insurance company penalised for not paying full dues to resident Tribune News Service Manmeet Singh Gill Amritsar, March 31 Holding an insurance company guilty of deficiency in service, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed it to pay Rs 42,300 with 9 per cent interest to a local resident who had bought medical insurance policy from it. In a complaint before the forum, Charanjit Kaur, a resident of Ajit Nagar and principal of Shri Guru Ramdass Public School, Golden Temple Colony, stated that she along with 13 other employees of the school had purchased medical insurance policies from United India Insurance Company. During the validity period of the policy, the complainant developed the problem of dysfunctional uterine bleeding and after consultation, she got herself admitted in Beams Minimal Access Surgery Centre on June 10, 2011. She was operated upon the next day. Charanjit stated that the total amount spent on her treatment, including medicines, tests, surgery and hospital charges, was Rs 67,500. She stated that the company denied her full compensation and reimbursed only Rs 25,200. The company in its written reply stated that she had not got her treatment done from a hospital empanelled by it for the purpose. It stated in the case of emergency, the insured can get his treatment done from any hospital but the reimbursement would be strictly based on the rates of the empanelled hospitals. However, the forum observed that the insurance company could not produce lists of rates or empanelled hospitals to prove that it was justified in passing the claim of the complainant to the tune of Rs 25,200 only.
	Man held for snatching bid Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The city police has arrested a youth who tried to snatch a purse from a woman in the Lawrence Road area. His accomplice, however, managed to flee from the spot taking advantage of the rush. The arrested youth has been identified as Akarvannan of Tamil Nadu. A case under Sections 382, 511 and 34 of the IPC has been registered in this regard and investigations are on. The incident happened when Anupurna Khanna, a resident of Pandori Wariach, was shopping in the Lawrence Road area. The accused tried to divert the attention of the woman by saying that her money had fallen on the ground. When she looked down, he tried to pull away her purse. However, Anupurna, who had held the purse tightly, resisted his move. After failing in his attempt, Akarvannan tried to run away but he fell a few metres from the spot and was caught hold of by some passersby. Police personnel at a naka nearby reached the spot and arrested him. Khanna told the police that the accused was accompanied by another person who fled from the scene. Parveen Kumar, in charge, Lawrence Road police chowki, said initial investigations revealed that the accused had arrived in the city about a week back and had been living in the railway station. He came to Punjab after a dispute with his family about three weeks back. He said Akarvannan started snatching purses to make easy money. Meanwhile, in another incident, two unidentified youths snatched the purse of a Kolkata resident near the Hall Gate area. Devkidas Pal, the husband of the victim, said while they were getting down from an autorickshaw, two youths snatched the purse of his wife and fled away.
	BJP leader, 3 others booked for attempt to murder Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The police has booked four persons, including a local BJP leader and his two sons, for attempt to murder and charges under the Arms Act after a clash between two groups in the Dhaab Basti Ram area late last evening. A case has also been registered against five persons of the opposite party. Satwinder Pal Singh, who runs a finance company on the Lawrence road, stated in a complaint to the police that Arjun Dhami, the elder son of BJP leader Naresh Dhami, had borrowed Rs 80,000 from him and had promised to return the money on March 28. However, when Arjun failed to return the money, Satwinder along with Manoj Kumar of Gali Jattan Wali went to his residence in Dhaab Basti Ram, Satwinder claimed. He stated that instead of returning the money, Arjun along with his father Naresh, brother Prince and an unidentified person assaulted him. He stated he and Manoj somehow managed to escape from their clutches. Naresh, he alleged, took out his revolver and fired at them. A case under Sections 307, 342, 506, 323 and 34 of the IPC and 25 Arms Act has been registered against the accused at the Gate Hakima police station. On the other hand, Naresh Dhami said it was the opposite party which had come to their residence and had attacked him. He said he would take up the matter with senior police officers. Dhaami alleged that Satwinder was involved in a gambling racket. He stated Satwinder and his gang had duped his son by luring him to gamble and had illegally confined his son at his residence in Gali Punjab Wali. On the complaint submitted by Naresh, the police have booked Satwinder Pal Singh, Laati, Ghori, Saau and Saabi under Sections 364, 384, 420, 120-B of the IPC. The investigating officer, Balwinder Singh, said no arrest had been made so far and the investigations were on.
	Exhibition buoys graphic art in city Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 A festival to highlight the art of graphic painting began at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA) here today. The mega exhibition, which will conclude on April 7, has as many as 209 paintings on display. These are based on an array of themes such as nature, human emotions, mythical forms and stages of life. Inaugurating the festival, IAFA president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina said the festival would open up avenues to make art an everyday indulgence for city residents. Anand Dev, a renowned Indian artist and former president of Lalit Kala Academy, Delhi, was among those present at the opening ceremony. He said, "The aim of the festival is to focus on graphic art, which has become a very important category in the contemporary as well as the experimental art. To have a collection of prominent artists from across the country at one stage will definitely help popularise this art form in Punjab." Chhina said, "It is for the first time that a festival has been dedicated to graphic art exclusively. The works on display have been put on exhibition-cum-sale, with tags underplaying their actual value because we want to motivate people to buy and make such art a part of their lifestyle." He said that it was the academy's endeavour to promote various art forms, including painting, cartoon-making, sketching and oil painting, individually to bring variety in the art world. Chhina appealed to the general public to come and see the exhibition even if they do not want to buy anything as, he said, an artist's biggest encouragement is exposure and appreciation for his work. Art critic Brijesh Jolly said it was the best collection put on display by the gallery so far. "The collection of work is detailed in every aspect, whether it is the variety of compositions, originality of designs or the artists involved. It is a positive step in the direction of making the city more art-aware and involved in art specifics. Punjab has very few graphic artists to name and such an exhibition would inspire more artists to take up graphics," he said. Arvind Mahey, a 22-year-old amateur artist who is pursuing his engineering degree from Guru Nanak Dev University, has 14 works on display in the exhibition. "I took up art as a hobby which is now turning out to be a potential career option. My works include sketches and portraits. I feel proud to find myself amid such renowned names of the art world," he said.
	Durgiana Mandir Committee passes Rs 11-cr annual budget Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The Durgiana Mandir Committee passed its annual budget of Rs 11.45 crore here today. The committee has passed development works worth Rs 3.45 crore, which will be taken up in the next financial year. During the budget meeting, the finance secretary of the committee, Brijmohan Parbakar, said Rs 13 lakh had been kept for a Sanskrit college and stitching training school for women. He said the committee had so far spent Rs 26 lakh on the construction of Shri Lakshami Narayan Yatri Niwas. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 1.45 crore. The committee has also proposed Rs 65 lakh for two kilogram of gold to be used for the building of the temple. Prabakar said during the previous financial year, the committee had purchased one kilogram gold. Besides, the committee has earmarked Rs 20 lakh for distributing free foodgrains to widows. For the propagation of religious teachings, the committee has kept Rs 10 lakh. An additional fund of Rs five lakh has been kept for installing a model of the temple at the city railway station. Earlier, the committee had installed a model of the temple at the Shri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport. Parbakar said the meeting was attended by 26 members of the committee. He said a general house meeting of the committee would be called soon to discuss the works in detail. Harish Taneja, spokesperson of the committee said the budget was passed unanimously. “The committee aims at creating facilities for the visitors apart from spreading word about religion,” he said.
	Old system likely to continue Registering sale deeds on basis of power of attorney Dharmendra Joshi Tribune News Service Jalandhar, March 31 In what may be termed as a relief to thousands of residents of Jalandhar and Amritsar districts, the state government has decided to continue the old system of registering sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney even after March 31. Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Cooperation and Jalandhar (North) MLA Krishan Dev Bhandari said Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had assured them that the old system of registering sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney would continue even after March 31. However, Deputy Commosioner Shruti Singh said"Punjab Financial Commissioner Revenue had verbally instructed her,while talking on phone regarding some other issue a few days ago, that the old system of registering sale deeds on basis of power of attorney would continue even after 31, but I did not get any written order so far. I would talk to Finance Commissioner Revenue on Monday morning to know the exact position on this issue. Bhandari said that Industries Minister and Amritsar (North) MLA Anil Joshi and I myself had raised the issue of registries during a meeting of MLAs of the ruling Akali-BJP alliance after the recent Assembly session in Chandigarh a few days ago and revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia had assured them that the old system for the same would dfinitely continue even after March 31. Meanwhile, sources said thePunjab government was working on formulating a policy for levying 2 per cent fees across the state for registering sale deeds on the basis of power of attorney and the old system would continue both in Jalandhar and Amritsar till the formulation of new policy. In an effort to tighten the noose around the tax evaders, former DC Priyank Bharti, in his orders issued on August 2 ,had directed revenue officials to take declaration from the applicants of power of attorney. He had issued the similar direction for Amritsar on August 6 when he was holding an additional charge of that district. Actually ,it had been a practice with most property dealers to simply take power of attorney from property sellers after the deal, not show the transaction on record, not get any registration done, evade stamp duty and keep the property with themselves till they got a good price from another buyer. The buyer, if taking it for his own use, would then get the registration done or else only the power of attorney would just keep on changing hands. The revenue officials had found that the number of power of attorneys done on any given day were equivalent to those of land registrations done. That is why, Priyank Bharti had issued directions to revenue officials to ensure that a declaration of transactions in the form of a set printed format be taken from all applicants coming for getting the power of attorneys made. They had also been directed to register the documents which reflected the transaction, take details of the bank accounts of the buyer and seller, get copies of bank statement, amount paid and received and PAN number of the buyer and seller to verify the mentioned details. The details, thus furnished, would also be passed onto the Income Tax Department for checking further evasion of the income tax, if any. As a result, no registry of thesale deed of an immovable property on the basis of power of attorney was done according to the old system for several weeks. At this, property dealers met local politicians who ,in turn, brought the matter to the notice of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia. Following this the Punjab Government told the then Jalandhar DC to restore the old system of registration of sale deeds of immovable properties on the basis of power of attorney for two months. Later ,the same was extend till December 31 and after that till March 31. Property dealers joyous President and general secretary of the Real Estate Builders and Colonisers Association Bhupinder Singh Bhinda and Rupinder Singh Gill welcomed the decision of the continuation of old the system. They said the real estate business would flourish with this decision. Meanwhile, they said the public was forced to do power of attorneys due to steep hike in the prices of registries which was currently eight to ten per cent of the land price.
	Assault victim's charge against policemen ‘Names of the two accused omitted by police’ Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 Rashpal Kaur, a professor at Shaheed Darshan Singh Pheruman College near Rayya and a resident of Baba Bakala, today accused the police department of implicating wrong persons in the case, in which her son was assaulted by a group of youths, while leaving the real culprits free. Rashpal Kaur alleged that her son Kawar Mukhpal Singh was thrashed by several persons of the same area when he was returning home after leaving her in the college. She said her son had identified the accused as Jarnail Singh, Sukhbir Singh, Bau, Sahib Singh and Balwinder Singh, all residents of Sathiala village and nearby areas, besides several unidentified persons. They were all armed with iron rods and sharp-edged weapons. However, she alleged that the police omitted the names of Jarnail Singh and Balwinder Singh while inducting the names of Simarpreet Singh and Rupinder Singh. She said her son did not know these two persons, but the police entered their names to save Jarnail Singh and Balwinder Singh. Kawarmukhpal, who was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in a serious condition, said he had given the names of Jarnail Singh and Balwinder to sub-inspector Gurnam Singh but he did not know why the police omitted their names. He said he did not know the reason why they had attacked him. Manmohan Singh, SSP, Amritsar police (rural), said the police officials had asked the victim to give supplementary statements and if they thought the real culprits had not been booked, they could name them.
	Over 900 students awarded degrees Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 As many as 975 degrees were given to students during the 55th convocation of DAV College today. Out of the total students, who were given degrees, 195 were postgraduates and 780 were graduates. College principal Dr KN Kaul declared the convocation open and presented the college profile and highlighted the achievements of the college in academics, sports and cultural activities. SR Ladhar, Commissioner, Jalandhar division, was the chief guest on the occasion. He congratulated the students and said the day would set a benchmark for their future. He motivated the students to set their goals in life and advised them to respect their institution and teachers. SS Bains, Special Secretary, Department of Rural Development, Punjab, and was the guest of honour on the occasion. In his address, he said he had served as a lecturer at DAV College, Jalandhar. He appreciated the college for providing conducive environment to the students to excel in their career. He asked the students to stay connected to their culture and motivated them to respect their mother tongue and their parents.
	Appointment in medical college Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 Dr Sidhu has been appointed as the medical superintendent of Government Medical College here today. Earlier, the seat was left vacant as Dr Tejbir Singh was elevated to the post of the Director, Research and Medical Education. Dr Sidhu said his foremost priority would be improvement in emergency services. He said the hospital would be made more responsive to the needs of patients besides improving skills of the hospital staff in using new machines. "The college is being upgraded and many new equipment are being added," said Sidhu. The cleanliness of the hospital building of the college is the other major issue, which Dr Sidhu has on his mind. "My priority will be to galvanise the whole system so that public's faith in government institutions could be built," he said. He added that he would try to seek more funds for buying emergency medicines.
	Tennis tournament Akarshit outplays Dhairya Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 Eight boys, each in U-12 and U-14 age groups, qualified for the main draw of the AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament, which is being organised by the Punjab State Lawn Tennis Association at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Tennis Stadium here today. In the U-12 matches, Uttar Pradesh's Akarshit Mahajan defeated Chadigarh's Dhairya Chadha 8-0 and Paramveer Singh of Punjab got better off Abhinav of Chandigarh 8-3. After an intense fight Siddharth Nijawan of Punjab beat Prateek Saroha of Haryana 8-7(2). Similarly, Jaguar Arora of Haryana beat Manvir Sohi of Punjab 8-3. Tarsh Mehrotra of UP overwhelmed Yash Dabas of Delhi 8-2 and Sidharth Goel of Chandigarh beat Udayvir Singh of Chandiagrh 8-5. Aakash Ahlawat of Haryana overcame Chetanbeer of Punjab 8-0 and Sammer Raina of Delhi defeated Dhruv Tangri of Punjab 8-3. In the U-14 matches, Jagnoor Singh of Punjab defeated Chaitanya Chaudhary of Haryana 8-1 while Nishant Dabas of Delhi beat Shrut Mohan Nagrola of Punjab 8-6. Satyakim Kohli of UP overwhelmed Sidharth of Maharashtra 8-1 and Asav Kumar of Chandigarh overcame Dalbir Singh of Punjab 8-1. Divesh Gehlot of Haryana trounced Aakash Anne of Andhra Pradesh 8-1, Sehaj Sidhu of Chandigarh defeated Kavish Paul of Delhi 8-3, in a one sided affair Karan Singh Bhalla beat Vedant Mahajan of his home state 8-3. Last engagement of the day saw quality tennis between Arjun of Karnatka and Rupal Sharma. Arjun won the match 8-7(2).
	Three proclaimed offenders held Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 31 The city police has arrested three proclaimed offenders, wanted in as many cases. The arrested were identified as Ashok Kumar of Husainpura, Narinder Singh of Khaankot and Sukhwinder Kaur. While Ashok was wanted in a fraud case, registered by the Civil Lines police in 2003, Narinder was held for inflicting injuries in a clash that had taken place in 2006. Sukhwinder Kaur was nabbed in a robbery case, which was registered against her in June 2010.