 |
|
|
Sikhs protest against ban on ‘Sadda Haq’
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
JIT asked to refund excess amount, pay compensation to allottee of
plot
Strong protests forced govt to lower property tax: MSC
Mandeep Singh Sachdev, along with his supporters, in a jubilant mood after being elected as the president of the District Bar Association in Jalandhar on Friday. Photo: Sarabjit Singh
Three held for property fraud
‘Irregularities’ in NRI Sabha election: HC issues notice
Confusion prevails during practical tests
Hike in transportation fee: St Joseph’s Convent School authorities, parents meet DTO
Youth gets life term for killing friend
175 boxes of liquor seized, one held
|
|
Sikhs protest against ban on ‘Sadda Haq’
Disagreeing with the government’s decision to impose a ban on the film, activists of various Sikh organisations, like the Sikh Youth of Punjab, Student Federation (Mehta), Shan-e-Khalsa, Dashmesh Phulwari, Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Sewak Dal, Dusht Daman Dal Khalsa and Sikh Youth Club, as well as various student leaders today took to the streets in protest against the decision. The protesting members took out a protest march from the Deputy Commissioner’s office to BMC Chowk raising slogans demanding the lifting of the government ban. Earlier in the morning they submitted a memorandum to ADC Praneet Bhardwaj demanding that the film be released. Talking to The Tribune, Manjit Singh Kartarpur, district president of the Sikh Youth of Punjab, said, “The government keeps mum regarding so many films which have bad influences on our culture, but this one which exposes the true face of the system is being banned. We have demanded that the film be released. If the government still doesn’t budge, then we will intensify our agitation. We won’t stop at anything short of the release of the film.” Answering the query on whether the film will cause law and order problems in the state, he said, “The film has been given a go ahead by a special panel of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). Why would they OK it if it was so violent? It is not law and order but fear of top officials being exposed, which scares the government.” Arvinder Singh, a student of Lyallpur Khalsa College, said, “We are supporting the film because it was banned in the most objectionable manner. It was a much talked about film, the government was aware of it. They could have expressed their objections earlier. But they chose to ban it on the eve of its release. That too after the censor OK'd it and the SGPC supported it and even honoured the film members.” While the film Sada Haq was banned by a government panel last night, on the eve of its release today, film producer and actor Kuljinder Sidhu reacted strongly to the government’s abrupt decision and said he would pursue the matter further. Talking to The Tribune, Sidhu said “This is a bad day for democracy. We have been denied our fundamental right to freedom of expression. And the decision to ban the film is full of contradictions.” Claiming that he suspected foul play in the way the film had been banned by the government, Sidhu alleged, “The lone incident (in which the windowpane of his car parked at a multiplex in Mani Majra was smashed by a miscreant) has been used as a basis to impose a ban on the film. We believe the main purpose of the attack was to look for an excuse to ban the film,” he alleged. “The police did not even lodge an FIR after we approached the Mani Majra police station. If the government is so bothered about the law and order situation in the state, at least an FIR should have been lodged in the incident,” Sidhu alleged. Speaking about the government review committee which saw the fated screening of the film last night, Sidhu said, “None of the officials who saw the film said anything last night. They left without a word and took the decision on their own. We weren’t even asked anything. It was shocking to hear about the ban.” “I believe the insecurities of the government and the police officials are the actual cause for the ban. The film was altered as per the instructions of the panel which saw the FCAT screening. It portrays both good and bad policemen. It did not pose any threat to the law and order of the state,” Sidhu alleged. He added that the team had all the proofs (newspaper clippings, court decisions, etc) to back what they had portrayed in the film. Meanwhile, Sidhu said, “I have been trying to meet the Deputy Chief Minister and Home Secretary DS Bains, but so far have been unsuccessful in doing so.” While the SGPC had personally taken up the matter of the film’s initial ban (following which it was screened for the FCAT), and honoured the film’s producers, Sidhu said, “SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar expressed hurt about the banning of the film by the government in my recent conversation with him. But given the government’s move, they had nothing else to say.” The film was also supported by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Sidhu said the team of "Sadda Haq" will ensure that the film sees the light of the day. “We will file a writ in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the government decision, if all else fails,” he said. While the film has released overseas, Sidhu said the film has been liked greatly by the overseas audience from whom he had been receiving
rave reviews. |
|
JIT asked to refund excess amount, pay compensation to allottee of
plot
Jalandhar, April 5 Plaintiff Deepak
Jaitly, a resident of Civil Lines, said he had applied for a plot, number 523-A, in the trust scheme. As per the allotment letter issued on November 19, 2007, the complainant was to get the physical possession of the plot on May 19, 2010, which he has not got till date. He said he even visited the site of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Avenue and found that there was no provision for transportation, roads, water supply, sewerage, electricity power and demarcation of the plot. He said he took a loan from the bank to purchase the plot and the bank was now charging heavy interest from him. He alleged, “The cost of the plot at the time of allotment was Rs 18.75 lakh and he had already paid much more amount than the declared cost.” He said he had to pay Rs 19,56,550, an amount of Rs 81,550 more. Despite his repeated requests and written correspondence, the trust had neither refunded the amount of Rs 81,550, nor handed him over the physical possession of the plot. He made a point that the rates of construction had sky-rocketed for which he suffered damages to the tune of Rs 10 lakh, which were liable to be paid by the trust. “In 2010, the rate of construction of a residential house was Rs 600 per sq feet, but at present the rate of construction is Rs 1,500 per sq feet”, he cited reason. The trust officials countered the complainant saying that he had not paid the installments within a prescribed period. They said he had outstanding arrears to the tune of Rs 6,55,108. They denied any excess amount having been paid by the complainant. They said the amount charged by the trust on account of interest, penal interest and penalty was Rs 2,84,808. The forum, consisting president Jaspal Singh
Bhatia, Darshan Singh and Jyotsna Thatai, took on record a memo of the state government issued to the Improvement Trust produced by the complainant which stated that “The Improvement Trusts charge penal interest and penalty for plots allotted by them from the date of allotment orders even in cases in which trust is not in a position to deliver the possession of the plot to the
allotee. As far as possible, the Improvement Trusts shall allot the sites only when they are sure that they are in a position to deliver the possession of site to the purchaser. A notice for the delivery of possession must be issued to the purchaser within a period of 30 days of the allotment bid indicating the time at which he should be present for taking over the possession. The period of delivery of possession to be given in the notice should not exceed 30 days. A registered notice should be issued by the trust.” The forum observed that the trust was required to issue a notice for the delivery of possession to the purchaser within 30 days of the allotment indicating the time at which he should be present for taking the possession. “In the present case, the trust has failed to prove if it ever issued any notice to the complainant to come to take delivery of the possession of the allotted plot. The complainant even served a legal notice on November 18, 2010, stating that physical possession of the plot has not been handed over to him till date. So the trust has wrongly charged interest, penal interest, penalty and restoration charges. So, it has received Rs 81,550 in excess from the complainant.” |
||
|
Strong protests forced govt to lower property tax: MSC
Jalandhar, April 5 Congratulating the residents for the victory, Ravindra Dhir urged the BJP, an alliance partner of the SAD, to take care of the interests of the urbanities in future. Dhir said, “The urbanities have already been suffering due to discriminatory decisions of the Badal government, including steep hike in power tariff several months ago, whereas free power is being provided to farmers despite the direction of the Centre to discontinue the same and too much VAT on petrol which imposes extra burden on residents as they get expensive petrol as compared to other parts of the country.” Meanwhile, some of the shopkeepers welcomed the decision of lowering of property tax, whereas the others demanded the withdrawal of property tax. Dhir said Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Cooperation and Jalandhar (North) MLA Krishan Dev Bhandari had assured a delegation of the MSC that the property tax would be lowered. Meanwhile, several Congress leaders, including Rajinder Beri and Virendra Sharma, said instead of bringing the facts to the fore, the government had tried to divert attention of the people by misquoting the factual position and Jawahar Lal Urban Renewable Mission (JNURM) guidelines. He said it was actually under the garb of these guidelines that the SAD-BJP alliance was planning to impose heavy property tax to fill their empty coffers, which had been exposed by the Congress. The Congress leaders said the Centre had directed under the JNURM guidelines that tax should be imposed on properties under the local bodies, but the state had already imposed house tax and the government was just required to change the name of house tax to property tax and rationalise it. The stand of the Congress that the Centre had not set any quantum for levying property tax was vindicated, they added. Shopkeepers observe token strike
Despite reports of rationalisation of property tax, shopkeepers of various markets in the city continued their token strike and dharna against its imposition. Shopkeepers of the markets located between Patel Chowk and Old Jail Chowk, near Old Sabzi Mandi, observed strike for three hours by closing their shops from 9 am to 12 noon today. The shopkeepers, accompanied by Congress leaders Rajinder Beri, Jagdish Raj Raja, Manjeet Singh Saroya, Kunal Sharma, area councillor Gurwinder Singh Bunty Neelkanth and Mobile Market Association president Raj Kumar Gupta, also staged a dharna on the road for lodging their protest against the imposition of property tax on the residents. |
||
|
Sachdev elected DBA president
Jalandhar, April 5 Eight of the total 1,198 votes polled were declared invalid. The Bar has more than 1,700 members. Mandeep had contested last year unsuccessfully. He has earlier been secretary of the association. Satnam Singh got elected to the post of secretary defeating his rival Karam Pal Singh Gill. The post of senior vice-president went to Sandeep Kalia. Sandeep Kumar Verma won the post of junior vice-president. The only woman contestant, Manju Bala, lost the contest of joint secretary against Ravish Malhotra. The post of assistant secretary went to Bharat Bhushan Sekhri. The seven of the nine members who have won the contest for the posts of executive are Amit Sekhri, Amit Vohra, Charanjit Lal Sareen, Gurmej Singh, Puneet Gulati, Susan Anand and Varun Chadha. |
||
|
Three held for property fraud
Jalandhar, April 5 The accused are Sailesh Kumar
Bhalla, a relative of the complainant, Pranbh Rai, a resident of Jyoti
Nagar, and the retired judge’s son Hari Om Sahni of Nawanshahr. They have been booked under Sections 406, 420 and 34 of the
IPC. According to the public prosecutor, Rai had applied for a bail in the court on April 2 but the judge had dismissed the application. “In view of the gravity of the offence, it is not a fit case to grant bail because the amount involved in the case is in
crores,” the judge had observed. An application was moved yesterday in the court of RK Gupta again and a report has been sought from the police and the next date was fixed on April 11. In his complaint, Saigal said that he was suffering from old age complications. “I shifted to my niece’s place in the Urban Estate from my Chandigarh residence as I am not even in a position to walk from one place to other. I was suffering from delirium and got admitted to the ICU in
PIMS,” Saigal said in his complaint. The complainant has retired from defence accounts department and does not have own children. He alleged that Sailesh
Bhalla, son of his niece, got his signature and thumb impression on some blank stamp paper and ordinary papers which he signed believing to be required by the
PIMS. After he got discharged from the hospital, he came to know that
Sailesh, Rai and Sahni had forged a sale agreement of his house in Chandigarh for Rs 50 lakh which was worth over Rs 4
crore. ADCP (Headquarters) Navjot Mahal said there was enough evidence against the accused. |
||
|
‘Irregularities’ in NRI Sabha election: HC issues notice
Jalandhar, April 5 The petition was filed by former NRI Sabha president Kamaljit Singh Hayre. A bench of Rajiv Narain Raina directed the respondents to file explanation by May 13 on the question as to what action was being taken on the representation dated January 27 addressed to the Jalandhar ADC (general)-cum-RO. NRI Sabha president elections 2013, Parneet Bhardwaj The HC in its one-page notice further sought explanation from the state of Punjab through its Secretary, Department of NRI Affairs regarding what action was taken on the representation dated January 10 and January 30 with particular reference to the allegation of fake membership. Gill had defeated Hayre with a huge margin of 197 votes. Gill had secured 657 votes while Hayre got 460 votes. Requesting to hold elections for the post afresh, Hayre in his petition had highlighted his concern over the registration of 100 persons as members in complete violation of law. In his representation to the ADC-cum-NRI Sabha RO which was filed soon after the election, Hayre had alleged that Gill was declared as president by violating the norms. Hayre said in his communication to him in response to his representation moved on January 30, the RO had admitted that no guidelines were adopted to check the status of persons casting their votes as NRIs. |
||
|
Confusion prevails during practical tests
Jalandhar, April 5 Later on, a letter issued by the District Education Officer
(DEO-Secondary) stated that science practical tests would take place before mathematics’ as a result of which many centres (which had already fixed practical exam dates) had to change their schedule. A centre superintendent said, “The change in practical tests caused a lot of confusion among students. While those who had been informed on phone got to know about the changed dates, many did not get any information. Many students had prepared for the test of a different subject. Many superintendents also did not receive the DEO’s letter on changed dates.” A science teacher, himself a centre controller, said, “There was confusion at some of the centres but it was mainly caused due to the negligence of parents. At some of the
centres, the confusion was caused as superintendents mixed up practical dates.” The kin of a student said, “We had gone out of station after his grandfather’s death. He was not allowed to appear for examination on April 3 because he got late. We had to come to the school to sort out the matter. A sudden change in the date was not our
fault.” DEO Neelam Kumari denied any confusion during practical examination. |
||
|
Hike in transportation fee: St Joseph’s Convent School authorities, parents meet DTO
Jalandhar, April 5 The DTO, Dalwinder Jit Singh, told the school principal Sister Prema and the representative of the parents Sanjay Sehgal to arrive at a consensus on the issue at their own end. A meeting for the same is scheduled to be held between the parents and the school authorities on the school campus this Sunday. The DTO told the principal that a proper contract must be signed between the authorities and the contractor clearly spelling out that no violation would be committed by the latter under the Motor Vehicle Act and that it would be the responsibility of the authorities to ensure compliance at their own end for the safety of the students. The matter got raked up after the management allegedly raised the transportation fee from Rs 750 to Rs 1500 in just a year's time citing new norms laid out by the DTO. The parents have been protesting that no new norms had been laid out and that permit charges and other levies were to be paid earlier as well.
|
||
|
Youth gets life term for killing friend
Jalandhar, April 5 The judge passed the orders against Sandeep Kumar Sahbi of Sansarpur village for stabbing his friend
Kiran, alias Kalti, on September 18, 2011, with a knife. A case under Section 302 had then been registered at the Sadar police station. A complaint in this regard had been filed by the deceased's sister
Meenu. In a yet another decision, Additional Sessions Judge Harpreet Kaur Randhawa has sentenced Vicky Kumar to three-year sentence and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him for the abducting an 11-year-old girl from near Burlton Park on December 12, 2012. An FIR under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC had been filed by the girl's father Ramesh Kumar in this regard. He had alleged that while he had gone to the market on his bicycle to buy goods that day, he had dropped his daughter near the area. He had said that Vicky came on his bike and took her along enticing her with sweets and a ride on his bike. Both Ramesh and Vicky are neighbourers at Gandhi Camp. |
|
175 boxes of liquor seized, one held
Jalandhar, April 5 Rakesh Kumar is the husband of Jassi Pardhan, who had in May last year allegedly got a false case under Section 307 of the IPC registered against excise officials and the police. Jassi, who had earlier been arrested and was out on bail, today managed to escape, said ACP (West) Ravinder Pal Singh. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Jalandhar, April 5
