Jalandhar, June 27
Heavy rain in and around the city this morning provided relief to residents from the scorching heat. However, the joy of the residents lasted only for sometime as several feet high rainwater accumulated on various roads due to the poor drainage system.

Continuous rain for over one hour brought smile on the faces of everyone. According to the Meteorological Department, 1.2 mm rain was recorded in the city today. The rain brought down the temperature. The minimum and maximum temperatures were recorded at 26.8 degree Celsius and 30.8 degree Celsius, respectively.

While sun shined in the afternoon, the Meteorological Department made a forecast of rain with thunder as the sky will remain cloudy on Friday.

Meanwhile, normal life was thrown out of gear, especially during in the morning, due to poor drainage system as the majority of city roads were inundated with several feet high water. So much so, accumulated rainwater also entered a number of houses located in several low-lying localities, including Kishan Pura.

The majority of roads in the Basti areas, Neelamahal, Gopal Nagar, Preet Nagar on Sodal Road, Domoria Pull, Ikahari Pulli, Makhdum Pura, Nakodar Road, Kacheheri Road and Gujja Peer Road were inundated with several feet high water due to heavy rain.

The condition of roads was already very bad and now it has became worse with the accumulation of rainwater. The already existing pits and potholes have further widened, increasing chances of mishaps.

Commuters passing through the inner city roads suffered due to accumulation of rainwater. Commuters passing through the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway also faced a lot of inconvenience as traffic remained jammed on the highway as water accumulated on the highway, especially near Chugitti.

Traffic remained jam on various inner roads and highway for several hours due to the rain.

Phagwara: With the town receiving heavy rainfall in the morning, roads in many areas got flooded exposing failure of the Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities in improving the drainage system before the onset of the monsoon season. The choked sewerage system is the main reason that led to the flooding of roads in most of the areas in the town. Several parts of the town were flooded with water within the few minutes after the rain started adversely affecting the vehicular movement.

Gaushala Bazaar, Sarai Road, Old Post Office Road, Subhash Nagar, Onkar Nagar, New Model Town, Hargobind Nagar, service roads along the national highway, Khaira Road, Palahai Gate, etc, were inundated with the rainwater.

Talking to The Tribune, several residents expressed resentment over the civic body for failing to find a permanent solution to the problem of flooding of roads during the monsoon season. It created lot of difficulty to commuters.

Jalandhar, June 27
Heavy rain threw life out of gear in the morning and brought misery to the residents living in low-lying areas in and around the city here today. It has further kept the district health authorities on their toes.

The department had hardly completed a drive launched to take preventive measures for curbing possibility of the outbreak of water-borne diseases after June 15 rain, today the heavy rain again compounded its work.

Talking to The Tribune, Civil Surgeon Dr RL Bassan claimed that the department would watch if the water accumulated in the low-lying areas receded in the next two days, otherwise the drive would be launched again.

He said teams of health officials had been kept ready with stocks of medicines and insecticides in case there was any emergency.

The department has asked its staff at different healthcare institutions across the district to educate and make public aware of the diseases that spread in the rainy season.

The department was earlier forced to launch a district-wide drive under which chlorine tables were distributed among residents of the rain-hit residential areas and insecticides were sprayed on water accumulated at various places.

The authorities had also held meeting with officials of different departments and appealed to them to take preventive measures against the spreading of diseases.

Jalandhar, June 27
A retired Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Vigilance Bureau, Mukhtiar Singh, has accused the district police of high-handedness after the registration of a case under the Excise Act against him.

In his complaint lodged with the SSP (Rural) seeking a high-level inquiry in the incident, he has alleged that he has become a victim of political rivalry.

“I was implicated in a false case due to political rivalry as my nephew Navjot Singh Dahiya had contested the Assembly elections on the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) ticket from the Shahkot constituency and now to keep me away from ongoing panchayat elections,” alleged Mukhtiar Singh.

Yesterday, a police party raided a house in a field at Billi Chauharmi village in Shahkot tehsil and allegedly recovered a furnace and raw material to prepare country liquor. Following this a case under Section 61/1/14 of the Excise Act was registered against Mukhtiar Singh.

Denying his involvement in any such activity, Mukhtiar Singh in a press conference held at the Punjab Press Club said he was staying at Urban Estate, Jalandhar. The house raided by the police was on his ancestral land and was being looked after by him as his father had expired two years ago in 2011 and his two brothers were living abroad. He used to visit his village once or twice a week. Out of the total land, 14 acres, having a tube well and some dwelling units, had been leased out to a person named Bholla for many years. This land was the share of his brother, claimed the retired SSP. “I and my family members have never been to this place during the past three months,” he said.

“Yesterday I came to know that a police party had raided the premises leased out to Bholla and a false case under Section 61/1/14 of the Excise Act was registered against me,” he said.

The SSP (Rural), Yurinder Singh, when contacted, said he had got the complaint lodged by Mukhtiar Singh and matter would be looked into.

Jalandhar, June 27
Notwithstanding the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Building Bye-Laws, the Jalandhar civic body has miserably failed to implement the guidelines for the rainwater-harvesting system in the residential buildings. According to the information available, most of the new houses are coming up without any rainwater-harvesting system.

In wake of depleting ground water level, certain amendments were made in the MC Building Bye-Laws. The latest norms in the bye-laws state that for effective conservation of rainwater, application for permission to construct or re-construct or alter or add to a building on a plot having area more than 200 square yards, the provision of the rainwater-harvesting system (percolation pits, recharge pits or any other rainwater harvesting structure) is must.

However, inquiries made by the TNS revealed that so far most of the residential buildings in different areas of the city were coming up without any rainwater-harvesting system. It is unfortunate is that the Town Planning wing officials of the civic body do not bother to take the violators to task. The bye-laws clearly mention that building plans in areas under the civic body should have a provision for rainwater harvesting and no building should be given the completion certificate till it is verified that the owner has abided by the rule.

However, contrary to the prescribed guidelines, the houses are coming up without the rainwater harvesting structures. “At the time of getting the building-plan sanctioned, the applicant shows rainwater-harvesting system but these are never implemented when the construction begins,” an official of the Town Planning wing said anonymously.

Another official of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation JMC) said: “Due to the staff shortage it becomes difficult to verify whether each and every newly constructed house and building has the provision of rainwater-harvesting system or not.” When contacted, Senior Town Planner Tarlok Singh admitted that there have been large scale violations pertaining to the rainwater-harvesting system in the residential accommodations. “Practically, it is very difficult to ensure that each and every residential house complies with the rainwater-harvesting structure norms,” he said. 

Jalandhar, June 27
Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner Anurag Verma said the last date for submitting of C-forms for the assessment year 2009-10 had been extended by three months. Verma disclosed this in the presence of a four-member delegation of industrialists who met him in Chandigarh.

The extension in submitting C-forms is being seen as a big relief to the businessman of the state as last date for submitting the forms was June 25, failing which the TIN numbers of concerned businessmen were to be locked.

The president of Federation of Jalandhar Industrial and Traders Associations Gursharan Singh, the chief of Small Hand Tools Associations AS Rajpal, north region chairman of Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation SC Ralhan and president of Jalandhar Traders and Manufacturers Association Raj Kumar Sharma were the members of delegation which met Verma. The delegation also submitted a two-page memorandum to Verma in support of their demands.

Talking to The Tribune after their meeting, Sharma said the commissioner also assured them of early VAT refund to businessmen.

A few days ago, the main businessmen associations of Jalandhar formed a joint action committee (JAC) to spearhead a movement against the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department on the issue of VAT refund and other related problems being faced by the industrialists and traders. The representatives of over a dozen industrialists and traders associations formed the JAC for pursuing their long-pending demand of refunding VAT to businessmen without submitting C-forms and withdrawing of unreal target given to each excise and taxation officer (ETO) for collecting Rs 25 lakh per month as revenue.

The representatives said about 200 crore of 15,000 businessmen of Jalandhar and about 1,000 crore of Punjab businessmen was pending with the Excise and Taxation Department for over last two years due to anti-traders policy of submitting C-form. The businessmen said: “C-form is a central instrument and state government should not impose any condition of prior submission of C-form for refunding VAT.”

The traders alleged that this condition had been imposed just to adopt dilly-dallying tactics for VAT refund. They demanded the complete withdrawal of the condition of submitting C-form in the interest of traders of the state.

The businessmen said the traders and industrialists were getting VAT refund without any difficulty from April 1, 2005, to October 2009, but the SAD-BJP government issued a notification according to which no VAT money would be refunded without prior submission of C-form.

It took two to three years for businessmen to get Form C from the parties concerned. As a result, crores of rupees of businessmen were lying with the Excise and Taxation Department, they added.