Ludhiana, May 7
With the mercury soaring, the taps at the local railway station have gone dry, leaving passengers high and dry. Irate passengers have complained that the railway authorities are adopting a casual approach towards the drinking water problem.

During a visit to the railway station today, it was found that the taps were running dry due to which passengers had to face a lot of problem, with many of them forced to buy bottled mineral water from stalls at the station.

As soon as a train from Jammu Tawi arrived at the platform No. 1, a large number of passengers alighted from the train and rushed towards the taps with empty water bottles. However, they had to return disappointed. Many of them bought mineral water from vendors at the station.

A passenger, Deepak Kumar, said, "I boarded the train from Jalandhar along with my family. I got down at the station to fill up water in an empty bottle, but the taps were dry. I had no option but to buy a mineral water bottle since my children were thirsty."

However, those who could not afford to but mineral water were at the receiving end. "I don't have enough money to buy mineral water. There was no water in the taps on the platform," said Kamaal Khan, another passenger.

Station Supervisor Ravinder Sharma said he visited the platform to take stock of the situation.

Senior Section Engineer Lal Chand said, "There was a power shutdown. The pumps are not connected with generators due to which the taps at the station ran dry."

Assistant Divisional Engineer K Garg said, "I have not received any complaint regarding the water problem at the station. I will look into the matter". The water problem was reportedly solved later in the day.

Ludhiana, May 7
While the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has been found wanting in taking regulatory measures against the proliferation of unauthorised colonies in every nook and corner of the mega city, developers of licensed colonies also seem to be refusing to fall in line if the mounting arrears of external development charges (EDCs) and the social infrastructure fund (SIF) are any indication.

Information available with Ludhiana Tribune reveals that 125 licensed colonies, spread over Ludhiana, Moga, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and the subdivisions of Ferozepur and Phillaur (which are also under the jurisdiction of GLADA), have unpaid dues of EDCs at a staggering Rs 52.12 crore while an amount of over Rs 1.32 crore is also outstanding against them as the SIF.

Official figures given by GLADA have put the arrears of EDCs and the SIF against 35 colonies in Ludhiana, approved by the Senior Town Planner, at around Rs 2.76 crore and Rs 21.18 lakh, respectively, while the developers of 65 colonies, approved by GLADA (also in Ludhiana zone under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995, owe more than Rs 37.92 crore as EDCs and Rs 60 lakh as the SIF.

As far as the default in the payment of EDCs and the SIF is concerned, the approved colonies falling in some other districts and subdivisions, which are also under the control of GLADA, are no better than their counterparts in Ludhiana.

Four licensed colonies in Moga district have defaulted in the payment of Rs 5.36 crore as EDCs and Rs 25.09 lakh as the SIF, six colonies in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have arrears of Rs 1.79 crore (EDCs) and Rs 16.09 lakh (SIF) against them, 11 licensed colonies in Phillaur subdivision in Jalandhar district owe Rs 3.97 crore as EDCs and Rs 14.47 lakh as the SIF whereas four colonies in Ferozepur subdivision have dues of Rs 30.09 lakh (EDCs) and Rs 2.03 lakh (SIF).

GLADA officials maintain that notices are being served on the defaulting developers under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995, to clear the arrears and seek completion certificates if the development work in their colonies has been completed. "The developers have not shown any interest in clearing their dues," an official said.

Sources said most developers had either sold a majority of the plots in their colonies or the development work had not commenced due to the recessionary trend in the real estate market. "In both case, the developers have nothing much to lose and seem to have chosen to ignore the notices sent by GLADA.

Ludhiana, May 7
Even as the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation removed encroachments from outside a house located opposite a temple at Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar today, residents living near commercial establishments or religious places continue to bear the brunt of illegal parking.

People visiting such places often park their vehicles in a haphazard manner and sometimes even close to the gates of houses. In such cases, residents are left with no option but to either approach the court or take other measures.

Perturbed over the parking of vehicles in front of his house, the owner of a house adjoining a marriage palace opposite the gate No. 2 of Punjab Agricultural University on Ferozepur Road had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It is learnt that people visiting the marriage palace used to park their vehicles in front of his house or in a manner that caused problems to him. It was after the directions of the court that the MC started a drive to check illegal parking in the service lane of Ferozepur Road.

The problem is not confined to these two places alone. Residents living near prominent commercial establishments or religious places face such a problem every day.

A resident, who lives near two gurdwaras in Model Town Extension, said whenever a function was organised at these gurdwaras, people parked their vehicles in front of the main gate of his house. “Whenever we have to go out, we face a lot of difficulty because we can't move our vehicle out,” he said.

Ludhiana, May 7
The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation today removed encroachments in the form of iron bars installed outside a house located opposite the Laxmi Narayan temple in Block B of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar here. The house owner had installed these iron bars to stop people from parking vehicles on the road.

The house owner had displayed "no parking" boards on these iron bars with a reference to an HC order.

When the matter came to the notice of Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria, he asked his staff to remove the encroachments.

Earlier, on December 5 last year, an MC team had removed these encroachments. However, the encroachments resurfaced and were removed again today.

A senior official of the building branch said, "Due to the installation of these iron bars, over 10 ft area of the road was encroached upon.

Several members of the Shri Laxmi Narayan Mandir Sabha staged a protest on the road outside the house this morning. They demanded that the encroachments be removed as these could lead to an accident as DAV Public School was located nearby.

Suraj Jyoti, president of the sabha, alleged that the house owner had encroached upon an 80 ft long and 10 ft wide portion of the public street for the past over 10 years. "We had brought the matter to the notice of MC officials as well as the Mayor on several occasions, but the encroachments were not removed," he said.

Sensing trouble, the Sarabha Nagar police reached the spot. Later, MC officials also reached the spot and removed the encroachments with the help of a machine.

The Mayor said as soon as he came to know about the encroachments, he asked his staff to remove these. "People should understand that public streets are for the use of residents. No person can install iron bars on the streets as it is illegal," he said.

Ludhiana, May 7
On a call given by the All-India Road Transport Workers Federation, the Punbus and Punjab Roadways Workers Union today held a protest at Chhatar Singh Park here.

Hundreds of workers took part in the protest. The protesters marched from Chhatar Singh Park to Bharat Nagar Chowk. They handed over a memorandum to SDM (East) Ajay Sood. A large police force, including women constables, were deployed on the way. Commuters had to take alternative routes as one side of the main road was blocked by the protesters.

The workers demanded increase in the minimum wages. They criticised the privatisation move of the government.

Ludhiana, May 7
Armed robbers barged into an NRI's house at Harjap Nagar near the Mundian area and allegedly decamped with cash, gold ornaments and electronic appliances after tying the NRI with a rope.

The victim has been identified as Paramjit Singh (40), who works as a truck driver in Germany. The incident took place this afternoon when Paramjit was alone at home.

Paramjit's wife Sukhwinder Kaur said she had left her house this morning to enquire about the well-being of her sister-in-law Baljinder Kaur.

The matter came to light when Satwinder Kaur, the only daughter of the couple, returned home and saw Paramjit tied with a rope.

A handkerchief was stuffed in Paramjit's mouth. Satwinder said he was lying unconscious. She called her mother and Paramjit was taken to a hospital.

Sukhwinder said the robbers decamped with Rs 50,000, 15 tola of gold ornaments, a computer and a printer.

The Jamalpur SHO said they were waiting for Paramjit to regain consciousness so that they could record his statement.

Ludhiana, May 7
Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tiwari has asked all the 12 Returning Officers to tie up with the police officials to avoid any unruly incident during the election process.

He said the zila parishad and panchayat samitis elections will be held on May 19 and for maintaining the law and order, the police must put a DSP level officer with each Returning Officer.

Besides, the Police Department was told to prepare a list of sensitive and very sensitive booths and hand it over to the ROs within two to three days.

Chairing a meeting of the Returning Officials, District Transport Officials and the Police Department at Bachat Bhawan today, Tiwari said that for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections more than 9 lakh voters will cast their votes.

He said total 1,449 polling booths were set up in the district and about 10,000 staff will be put on election duties.

He asked the ROs to religiously follow the code of conduct which will be implemented till May 23. He said that each candidate can spend Rs 1.56 lakh for zila parishad election and Rs 65,000 for panchayat samiti elections.

The District Election Officer said that no candidate can garner votes on basis of caste and religion and no candidate was allowed to make comments on personal lives of others.

Tiwari said in total 20 lakh ballot papers were expected to be published and after the withdrawal of nominations on May 9, the ROs will make sure that the work of printing press was satisfied, else services of other printing press needs to be hired.

He warned that no wrong ballot papers should be published and free symbols should be allotted to the candidates.

Apart from these, the Returning Officers have been asked to send the lists of vehicles required to the DTO.

He said, “The final meeting for the election process will be held on May 12 or May 13 and by then the DTO must be able to get all the lists so that sufficient number of buses could be arranged. The next training of staff will be held on May 12.” 

Ludhiana, May 7
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the new income tax returns (ITR) form for the financial year 2012-13, with amendments to check wealth tax evasion.

Contrary to the belief that declaring domestic assets will become mandatory for all the individual taxpayers, the CBDT has made it mandatory for businessmen, professionals and partners of firms and capped the income at Rs 25 lakh.All those falling in the category will need to give the details of assets like land, art/antique pieces, jewellery, bank accounts, shares, etc. The details of such investments will include the value of assets.

To get more information about persons operating foreign accounts and to catch those who haven't declared these, the CBDT has asked for the value of peak account balance in rupees.

Earlier, such details were not needed. Now, such taxpayers will have to show the peak amount in their account in a year, converted in rupees according to (on the day of peak balance) the exchange rate of the day," said Jatinder Khurana, an expert.

The account number should also be specified against only the name of the overseas account holder.

Last year, the government had made it mandatory that those earning Rs 10 lakh and more would file e-returns. This year, the income threshold has been brought down to Rs 5 lakh for filing taxes online.

Those who have incurred a loss on the sale of a house will also need to file returns through the ITR 2 in place of the ITR 1. This is largely because ITR 2 requires more details like, in this case, the details about the co-owner of the house (name, PAN and stake held).

Those who run trusts abroad also need to give all the details along with their tax returns.

There is an amendment in the refund section of the ITR, wherein those claiming a refund need to mention their bank IFSC codes and not just MICR numbers. It has been noticed that many times refunds are credited to a wrong account when transferred online through the MICR code, say experts. 

Ludhiana, May 7
Congress leader Satish Sharma, known as "Showman", today levelled several allegations against district Congress president Pawan Diwan and demanded his resignation from the post.

While addressing a press conference, Satish Sharma alleged that in Pawan Diwan's leadership, infighting among the district Congress workers was on its peak and a number of party workers had quit the party as they felt neglected.

"Pawan Divan has failed to come out with a programme for the district unit of the party," he alleged.

"The SCs/STs and other minority communities have played a vital role in the history of the Congress, but Pawan Diwan has been marginalising them. We demand that if he is not able to run the party, then he must resign from the post of district president," he said.

"Pawan Diwan showed fake performance reports to Union Minister Manish Tiwari," he alleged.

Meanwhile, denying the allegations levelled by Satish Sharma against him, Pawan Diwan said: "We act according to the instructions we get from the party high command in Delhi. According to the party programme, we conduct a meeting at every level. We have organised programmes on every important issues. Everything is going on well and is in a good shape. All the allegations levelled by Satish Sharma against him are baseless. There is no infighting in the party". —TNS

Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 7
Three members of a family were killed when the Santro car in which they were travelling fell into the Sirhind Canal, near here, this afternoon. A girl was rescued by passersby.

The deceased have been identified as Harjit Singh (40) of Mangewal village in Barnala district, his wife Suman Jit Kaur (39) and daughter Rupanpreet Kaur (13). Poonam Preet Kaur was rescued by passersby.

The family was returning home after attending a wedding in Jalandhar. Hardly had they covered a few kilometres after paying obeisance at the historic religious place situated on the banks of the canal when the car fell into the canal. It is suspected that Harjit Singh lost control over the vehicle after a stray cattle abruptly appeared on the road.

Poonam Preet Kaur told the police that his father and mother had tried to open their safety belts after the car fell into the canal. Her sister also got stuck in the car. Luckily, Poonam managed to open the window on her side and cried for help.

Investigations revealed that the family had taken this route as they wanted to see their relatives at Jandali Kalan village. Instead of staying there, they chose to left for their home early.

"Had we stayed at Jandali, the tragedy could have been averted," said Poonam.

Ludhiana, May 7
The Excise and Taxation Department has sent a show-cause notice to Malhotra Group for illegally storing a huge quantity of liquor in a godown on Karabara Road.

On Friday evening, around 70,000 cartons of liquor were seized from the godown of a garment factory. The entire stock belongs to Gaurav Malhotra and Company, which is owned by Gaurav, son of MLA from Faridkot Deep Malhotra.

Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner Kanwalpreet Brar confirmed that the stock belonged to Gaurav Malhotra and Company.

"We have sent a show-cause notice to Malhotra Group for keeping liquor in large quantities. The duty for the stock has been paid, but the company had failed to renew the L1 licence, which is mandatory for keeping wholesale stocks," said Brar.

The liquor contractor, however, maintained that the stocking of liquor was nothing unusual, particularly around this time of the year, as unsold bottles of liquor had to be stored till these are disposes of.

Sources in the department indicated that penalty to be imposed on the group might run into lakhs.

Ludhiana, May 7
As activists of different Dalit organisations held protests against the film, "Shootout at Wadala", Sanjay Gupta, who is associated with the film, expressed regret and apologised to the community.

Harpreet Sindhu, advocate from the Bhartiya Valmiki Dharam Samaj, who had served a legal notice on the makers of the film, confirmed the development.

He said Sanjay Gupta not only tendered an apology in writing, but also spoke to him and expressed regret for hurting the feelings of the community.

The Commissioner of Police, Ishwar Singh, has banned the screening of the Hindi film.

"The matter will not end with an apology. We are planning to file a criminal complaint and demand the registration of a criminal case under section 295- A of the Indian Penal Code for maliciously insulting the religious belief of a class," said Vijay Danav, Lachhman Dravid, Deepak Hans and other senior leader.

Jagraon, May 7
Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy, Chakar, has produced yet another national champion. Its pugilist Harjit Singh has bagged a gold medal for Punjab in the recently held National School Boxing Championship.

A trainee of the academy and student of Government Senior Secondary School, Chakar, Harjit Singh hogged the limelight with his spectacular performance during the 58th National School Boxing Championship that concluded at Tadepalligudem, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.

Expressing delight over Harjit's achievement, chief administrator of the academy Balwant Singh Sandhu said Harjit represented Punjab in the under-17 category and won all his bouts to clinch the gold medal.

"Harjit Singh is a highly talented boy. He reached the final by beating the pugilists of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Haryana and the host state of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The final bout with the Maharashtra pugilist was a closely contested one," said Sandhu. "With his good show throughout the tournament, Harjit Singh got the attention of each and every one," he added.

Harjit was accorded a warm welcome by the villagers when he returned to the village. At a brief function organised on the premises of the academy, the villagers and the representatives of the academy felicitated the pugilist.

Harjit is not the first trainee of Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy to become a national champion. It has produced several national and state champions. Set up by certain NRIs of the village with the motive of promoting sports among the local youth a couple of years ago, the academy has earned a niche for itself in a very short period of time. 

Ludhiana, May 7
The result of Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) 2013 was declared today.

For the convenience of students, the results were put on the website by the CBSE, which evoked mixed response by the students. As this was the first batch of the new format, students maintained that much will depend on the board exam results also.

Mahima, a student, said she had scored 120 marks in Physics, Chemistry and Maths. “I cannot say that I will be able to get admission in a college of my choice as much will depend on my board results also, which is expected to be out anytime after May 15. But I have been qualified to sit in the IIT examination.”

Another student, Gaurav, said: “Since there was a negative marking in the JEE exam, he is keeping his fingers crossed for the good result. I have scored 270 marks and I expect at least 90 per cent marks in board examination. If all goes well, I will get admission either in Patiala or Chandigarh, which was my dream.”

The students were seen looking at the websites since morning but the results were uploaded in the afternoon. Many students showed the signs of panic while several others were relaxed and calm.

Meanwhile, as per the cut list by the board, the students in General Category scoring more than 113 marks have qualified for the IIT. For students falling under Other Backward Class, 70 marks were required while students from Scheduled Caste were required to score 50 marks to be qualified and 45 marks were required for students representing Scheduled Tribe category. 

Ludhiana, May 7
The Jodhewal police has booked one person for confining his wife to the house.

The accused has been identified as Rajinder Singh, a resident of Jodhewal. According to the complainant, Amandeep Kaur, a resident of Subhash Nagar, got married to Rajinder Singh in 2010. After marriage Rajinder often used to beat her up. On April 26, Rajinder thrashed her badly and confined her to the house while threatening to kill her. She narrated the whole incident to her parents following which the incident was reported to the police by her parents. The police has booked Rajinder for illegal confinement and domestic violence case. —TNS

Ludhiana, May 7
Three persons have been booked on a charge of harassment for dowry. The accused have been identified as Inderpal Singh, Harminder Singh and Suridner Kaur, all are the residents of BRS Nagar.

According to Jaswinder Kaur alias Mona, a resident of Shahpur road, she got married to Inderpal Singh in December 2010. After sometime her husband and her in-laws started harassing her on pretext of less dowry and started demanding more dowry. — TNS 

Khanna, May 7
Two youngsters were killed and two girls injured in a road accident that occurred near Libra village on the Ludhiana-Ambala road. The car, in which they were travelling, collided with a tractor-trailer. While one of the youngsters died instantly, the other died at the local Civil Hospital.

According to information, the occupants of car were going to Faridabad. When their car reached near the village, it hit a loaded tractor-trailer. The collision was so fierce that the tractor-trailer overturned and the car was badly damaged.

Dakash (35), who was driving the car, died instantly while Anil (25) was declared dead by the doctors at the Civil Hospital, Khanna. The injured girls have been identified as Charu (22) and Payal (24). They are out of danger and have been admitted to the Civil Hospital.

The SHO of the Sadar police station, Waryam Singh, said the bodies were handed over to the deceased youngsters' relatives in the evening. No case had been registered till the filing of the report.